protected persons), offences linked to civil aviation, offences linked to ships and fixed platforms, and offences linked to dangerous materials.23 According to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, for example, terrorism includes any “act intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to a civilian, or to any other person not taking an active part in the hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, when the purpose of such act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or to compel a Government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.” It requires the penalization of specific offences related to the financing of terrorism thus defined. The Security Council has recognized the ratification and effective implementation of the universal anti-terrorism instruments as a top priority. On 28 September 2001, acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, it adopted resolution 1373 (2001), stating explicitly that every act of terrorism constitutes a “threat to international peace and security” and that the “acts, methods, and practices of terrorism are contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.” The resolution also requires all States to criminalize terrorist acts; to penalize acts of support for or in preparation of terrorist offences; to criminalize the financing of terrorism; to depoliticize terrorist offences; to freeze funds of persons who commit or attempt to commit terrorist acts; and to strengthen international cooperation in criminal matters. Depending on the context in which terrorist acts occur, they may also constitute crimes under international law. During the drawing-up of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, several delegations argued for the inclusion of terrorism in the jurisdiction of the Court as a separate crime. The majority of States disagreed, however, precisely because of the issue of the definition. The Final Act of the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court, adopted in Rome on 17 July 1998, recommended that a Review Conference of the Rome Statute, which may take place seven years following the entry into force of the Statute, namely in 2009, should consider several crimes, including terrorism, with a view to arriving at an acceptable definition and their inclusion in the list of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court. Although the Rome Statute does not include “terrorism” as a separate crime, it does contain various offences which may include terrorist conduct, depending on the particular facts and circumstances of each case. A terrorist act might constitute a crime against humanity, an offence defined under article 7 of the Rome Statute to include certain acts 14