Al-Qaeda, Taliban sanctions committee approves “most comprehensive set of updates” to sanctions list

The chair of the UN Security Council’s “Al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee” on Monday said the committee has “approved the most comprehensive set of updates” to their sanctions blacklist, as well as the largest group of narrative summaries for added listings in its history.The statement came as the chairman of the Security Council Committee established [...]

UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee report on bringing terrorists to justice

Read it here. A. International cooperation in counter-terrorism investigations and prosecutions B. The role of the prosecution in counter-terrorism cases C. New challenges in the investigation and prosecution of terrorismD. Prosecution of terrorism cases and prevention of terrorism E. The prosecution and counter-terrorism investigationsF. Organization of the prosecution and its relationship with other agencies G. [...]

UN focuses on use of Internet to counter appeal of extremist violence

Using the World Wide Web to craft and deliver effective counter-narratives to fight the appeal of extremist violence was the focus of a three-day, United Nations-organized counter-terrorism workshop which was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “There is no single counter-narrative just as there is no single audience – we will aim to look at many [...]

UN report confirms gap between law and reality, torture, secret detentions and police harassment in Tunisia under Ben Ali

The United Nations just published a report on its website which describes the fact-finding mission of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism in January 2010. On the basis of the evidence he gathered, he observed a pattern of unacknowledged detention being used vis-à-vis terrorist suspects. During the [...]

Security Council prolonges CTED mission for three years in res 1963

On the 20th of December the Security Council decided that the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) would continue to operate as a special political mission under the policy guidance of the Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee for another three years, through 31 December 2013. The Council directed CTED to provide an updated Global Implementation Survey of resolution [...]

Diplomatic cable on US-COJUR meeting in 2006 sheds some light on EU reason not to support anti-Guantanamo Resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission

Wikileaks published a cable yesterday (06BRUSSELS524) on a meeting which has interested many legal scholars which work on the fight against terrorism. On February 7-8 2006 US Legal Adviser John Bellinger met  with a comprehensive array of EU interlocutors in Brussels  to discuss U.S. views on the legal framework for the war on terrorism. Unfortunately [...]

US ordered surveillance of UN officials, including through obtaining biometric information

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered clandestine surveillance of United Nations leadership, including obtaining “security measures, passwords, personal encryption keys, and types of VPN versions used” and biometric information, according to cable 09STATE80163 made public today by WikiLeaks.org. The National HUMINT Collection Directive (NHCD) on the United Nations asks for details about “information systems, [...]

U.N. Remains Deadlocked on Defining Terrorism

A U.N. Ad Hoc Committee to Eliminate Terrorism, created by the General Assembly back in December 1996, has remained deadlocked as it tries to reach agreement on a comprehensive draft convention to eliminate terrorism. Last month, it made another unsuccessful effort at drawing a distinction between “freedom fighters” and “state sponsored terrorism”. (Doc. Nr. A/C.6/65/L.10) [...]

The U.N. Security Council’s 1267 Regime and the Rule of Law in Canada

New paper by the BC Civil Liberties Asssociation. The paper considers, inter alia, whether Canada’s implementation of the 1267 Regime is consistent with its due process obligations under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Bill of Rights, using the experience of Abdelrazik as an example of Canada’s domestic implementation at work. Read it [...]

Security Council’s counter-terrorism measures outside the scope of its powers says UN Special Rapporteur

UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, Martin Scheinin, has told the General Assembly today that the counter-terrorism regime created by the Security Council is outside the scope of its powers. The main recommendation contained in the report is that the Security Council should seize the opportunity of the approaching tenth anniversary of its [...]