Assessing Damage, Urging Action The Mandate of the Panel The Panel was mandated to examine the compatibility of laws, policies and practices adopted to counter terrorism, with basic principles of the rule of law, international human rights law and, where applicable, with international humanitarian law. The definition of terrorism There is no agreed universal legal definition of terrorism. A proposed draft UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism4 has stalled, leaving a patchwork of national, regional and international law defining the phenomenon, or various aspects of it. However, it is not correct to infer from this that international law provides no guidance on the nature of terrorism. There are thirteen thematic international conventions addressing different aspects of the phenomenon, such as aircraft hijacking, hijacking of sea vessels and financing of terrorism.5 Cumulatively, these documents have identified a number of acts commonly considered as terrorist acts. In practice, there is already a high degree of political consensus internationally on the core description of terrorism. These elements are set out in the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing Terrorism6 and Security Council Resolution 1566 (2004), which described terrorism in the following terms: “…criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act…” 7 The Panel does not seek to offer any new definition of terrorism, but considers that, in describing terrorism, it is important to focus on the act itself, not the actor. In principle, anyone can commit terrorist acts. Many of the obstacles to reaching an agreed comprehensive definition of terrorism have related to this point, with various governments disputing that either State actors or national liberation movements can 4 In 1996, the UN General Assembly established an Ad Hoc Committee with a mandate to draft a comprehensive international convention on terrorism and a convention on the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism. A broad agreement on 27 articles had been reached in 2002, but disagreements continue on articles dealing with the scope of application of the Convention, in particular in relation to liberation movements and the activities of military forces of a State. See Report of the Ad Hoc Committee, Twelfth session (25 and 26 February and 6 March 2008), General Assembly, Official Records, Sixty-third Session, Supplement No. 37 (A/63/37). 5 See for further references http://www.un.org/terrorism/instruments.shtml. 6 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, adopted by the UN General Assembly Resolution 54/109 of 9 December 1999. 7 UN Security Council Resolution 1566 (2004), adopted on 8 October 2004, UN Doc. S/RES/1566 (2004). 7