It implies that the imposition of criminal liability is limited to clear and
precise provisions, so as to respect the principle of certainty of the law and
ensure that it is not subject to interpretation which would unduly broaden
the scope of the proscribed conduct. Overly vague or broad definitions
of terrorism may be used by States as a means to cover peaceful acts to
protect inter alia labour rights, minority rights or human rights or, more
generally, to limit any sort of political opposition.86
As mentioned earlier, none of the current international conventions on
anti-terrorism contains a comprehensive definition of the term terrorism.
Neither do resolutions of the various United Nations bodies set out a
comprehensive definition. Instead, the conventions are “sectoral” in nature
and address specific subjects, whether air safety, maritime navigation and
platforms, the protection of persons, or the suppression of the means by
which terrorist acts may be perpetrated or supported.
As mentioned in chapter I, section B, negotiations on a draft comprehensive
convention on international terrorism, referred in 2001 to a committee of
the General Assembly, continue. Importantly, the draft convention contains
a comprehensive definition in its article 2. In view of its comprehensive
approach, the adoption of the draft convention would contribute to
strengthening the international legal framework by consolidating a number
of criminal conducts that the existing, “sectoral” universal conventions
do not cover. However, certain aspects of the draft convention remain
controversial, in particular the scope of application of the proposed
definition of terrorist offences and whether national liberation movements
should be excluded or not from its scope of application, as well as its
interplay with other provisions of international law.87 Moreover, even if
a comprehensive definition is agreed upon at international level, human
rights concerns may still arise depending on the definition of terroristrelated offences adopted nationally.
In 2004, the Security Council adopted resolution 1566 (2004), in which
it called on all States to cooperate fully in the fight against terrorism and,
in doing so, to prevent and punish criminal acts that have the following
three characteristics, irrespective of whether motivated by considerations
of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other
similar nature:
• Committed, including against civilians, with the intent to cause
death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages; and
• Committed with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the
general public or in a group of persons or particular persons,
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