Measures To Eliminate International TerrorismTerrorism has been an international nuisance for an extremely long time.
Terrorism has been usedto express political and religious beliefs, in retaliation for certain wrongdoing, and in other cases for thespecific purposes of intimidating and injuring people. Nearly all nations are and have been effected byterrorism in one way or another. Some nations have been victimized others have actually been sponsorsand the majority has seen their citizens stricken with the that they cannot be protected by their governmentfrom terrorism. Seeing as how one of the United Nation’s many goals is to protect innocent citizens, theUnited Nations has made many attempts to lesson, if not eradicate, the problems posed by internationalterrorism.
One of the most important measures taken by the United Nations took place in 1994 with thepassing of the Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism. Another measure, equallyimportant and even more recent, took place in 1997 when the General Assembly adopted Resolution52/164,The International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings. Both of these measures plannedstrong action while keeping in mind the sovereignty of the nations involved and along with the passing ofSecurity Council resolution 1269 which “unequivocally condemns all acts, methods and practices ofterrorism as criminal and unjustifiable regardless of their motivation,” have taken great strides in the fightIn our over forty years as a United Nations member, including two stints as a non-permanentmember of the Security Council, Austria has made attempts to aide in the eradication of internationalterrorism. In our nations opinion, terrorism is unacceptable and actions must be taken in order to protectcurrent, as well as, future generations.
However, these actions must be taken with respect to all partiesinvolved. It is for these reasons that Austria would like to propose a “Strategy for Prevention”. Accordingto DR. Gerhard Pfanzelter, the permanent representative of Austria to the United Nations, this strategyfocuses on, “the need for the international community to take early warnings seriously and to act inappropriate manner at the earliest stage possible.
” In addition to the “Strategy For Prevention” Austriawould also like to encourage the use of extradition in all international terrorist cases. We feel thatextradition treaties work as an excellent deterrent to terrorists who are contemplating committing such actsand we also feel that extradition treaties provide an excellent method of providing justice. Most importantlyhowever, Austria feels that in order for the international community to see significant improvement in thearea of international terrorism, all members of the United Nations must work together as a cohesive unitfocusing on the horrors of terrorism. As was stated by the Mission of Austria in a report to theSecretary-General, “The international community faces a double challenge: countries are sometimes notprepared to recognize the necessity and benefit of early action to prevent terrorist acts.
The internationalcommunity, and its most powerful members in particular, often lack the will to engage politically,financially or otherwise at the early signs of tension which may result in terrorist activity.” In order toeliminate theses problems of international miscommunication the United Nations members must agree uponsolid, unquestionable definitions of exactly what terrorism and we feel that Security Council resolution1269 made an excellent step in this direction. By eliminating the problems of internationalmiscommunication, implementing our “Strategy For Prevention”, and implementing more extraditiontreaties, Austria feels that the United Nations will make tremendous strides in eliminating international
