United Nations: As terrorists struck a massive blow in the region on Friday, India called for quick action to adopt the long-stalled Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) and expressed disappointment that the General Assembly failed to push for its early adoption.
Speaking at the General Assembly while Islamic State terrorists were carrying out an attack in Dhaka’s diplomatic enclave and taking hostages, India’s Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said, “The perpetrators of terrorist attacks as well as the States that support and sponsor or provide safe havens to terrorists or terrorist groups must be made accountable.”
Urging all nations to adopt the CCIT by the next session, he said that India was disappointed that the resolution on Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the Assembly failed to advance its early enactment.
Adopting it “would show that the international community is determined and pledges to take concrete actions on counter-terrorism by filling in the gaps that are there in the existing regime,” he said.
The resolution lacked a sense of urgency as it merely called upon “all States to make every effort to conclude a comprehensive convention on international terrorism.”
Akbaruddin later explained to IANS that India’s “disappointment was that we would have preferred stronger language” in the resolution about the CCIT, “basically setting a finite time frame for adoption of CCIT.”
The convention was originally proposed by India 20 years ago and its draft has been deadlocked since 2012 because of differences on defining terrorism and terrorists. Certain countries claim they are “liberation movements” and “freedom fighters” and try to exempt those that they favor.
“No belief, justification, political cause or argument can be used to justify the acts of terrorism,” Akbaruddin said in his speech to the Assembly.
The failure to adopt the convention, Akbaruddin said, “Signals that the exponential rise in terrorist activities around the world has left us untouched.”
He reiterated India’s suggestion to create a counter-terrorism czar at the UN to oversee the fight against terror across the organisation and “convey a clear signal that counter terrorism has a significant place on the UN agenda.”
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