Security Council Reviews Progress Against Terrorism

By Victor Comras

It may be a sign of the times that the UN Security Council could hold an open session on the progress in the war on terrorism, as it did yesterday, and attract so little press and other attention. During yesterday's session, the Security Council received briefings from its three specialized anti-terrorism committees -- the Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions (1267) Committee, the Counter-Terrorism (1373) Committee and the new (1540) Committee on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The briefings were devoid of anything controversial, and really didn�t provide any new insights into how the war on terrorism was progressing. At first brush the session did not appear newsworthy. But, reading through the lines there are several items that do merit attention.

First, the Security Council has adopted a new tone of language with regard to terrorism. The Security Council President�s Statement, this time, forthrightly condemned terrorism �in all its forms and manifestations� as �criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, whenever and whomsoever committed.� This language seems closer in tone to the �definition of terrorism� now being considered for adoption.

A new emphasis was also placed on expanding counter-terrorism cooperation with various regional and international organizations, notably Interpol. This is a positive step and the UN should be encouraged to look even more broadly to international and regional enforcement agencies to garner increased compliance with its sanctions measures.

There was also a new degree of frustration and impatience with the slow pace of work manifested by the various terrorism committees. Most of this was directed at the Secretariat�s failure to get the new Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) up and running. CTED was established by the Security Council over a year ago and remains woefully understaffed. The success of the Security Council�s counter-terrorism program, US Security Council Representative Stuart Halliday warned, is dependent on getting the CTED fully operational, �Without a fully operational Executive Directorate, it would be difficult for the CTC to fulfill its mandate, let alone the latest 90-day work programme,� he said.

There was also growing impatience with the failure of some 75 countries to provide the chapter VII required reports on the steps they were taking to deal with terrorism. The absence of reports was viewed as seriously hampering the work of the 1640 Committee charged with developing recommendations on stemming risks of WMD proliferation.

The Security Council will soon reconsider the mandate of the 1267 Committee and develop new, strengthened measures to deal with Al Qaeda and related groups. Regrettably, there is no indication they are yet considering measures to bring greater accountability and transparency to the sanctions implementation process. A healthy dose of �name and shame� authority could go a long way toward making the UN counter-terrorism measures more effective.

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