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The 19 international legal instruments

Since 1963, the international community has elaborated 19 international legal instruments to prevent terrorist acts. Those instruments were developed under the auspices of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and are open to participation by all Member States.

Here is a summary of the 19 universal legal instruments and additional amendments dealing with terrorism. (For the full text of the documents click on the title).

Instruments regarding civil aviation

• Applies to acts affecting in-flight safety;
• Authorizes the aircraft commander to impose reasonable measures, including restraint, on any person he or she has reason to believe has committed or is about to commit such an act, where necessary to protect the safety of the aircraft; and
• Requires contracting States to take custody of offenders and to return control of the aircraft to the lawful commander.

• Makes it an offence for any person on board an aircraft in flight to “unlawfully, by force or threat thereof, or any other form of intimidation, [to] seize or exercise control of that aircraft” or to attempt to do so;
• Requires parties to the convention to make hijackings punishable by “severe penalties”
• Requires parties that have custody of offenders to either extradite the offender or submit the case for prosecution; and
• Requires parties to assist each other in connection with criminal proceedings brought under the Convention.

• Makes it an offence for any person unlawfully and intentionally to perform an act of violence against a person on board an aircraft in flight, if that act is likely to endanger the safety of the aircraft; to place an explosive device on an aircraft; to attempt such acts; or to be an accomplice of a person who performs or attempts to perform such acts;
• Requires parties to the Convention to make offences punishable by “severe penalties”; and
• Requires parties that have custody of offenders to either extradite the offender or submit the case for prosecution.

Extends the provisions of the Montreal Convention to encompass terrorist acts at airports serving international civil aviation

• Criminalizes the act of using civil aircraft as a weapon to cause death, injury or damage;
• Criminalizes the act of using civil aircraft to discharge biological, chemical and nuclear (BCN) weapons or similar substances to cause death, injury or damage, or the act of using such substances to attack civil aircraft;
• Criminalizes the act of unlawful transport of BCN weapons or certain related material;
• A cyber attack on air navigation facilities constitutes an offence;
• A threat to commit an offence may be an offence by itself, if the threat is credible.
• Conspiracy to commit an offence, or its equivalence, is punishable.

• Supplements the  by expanding its scope to cover different forms of aircraft hijackings, including through modern technological means;
• Incorporates the provisions of Beijing Convention relating to a threat or conspiracy to commit an offence.

Instruments regarding the protection of international staff

• Defines an “internationally protected person” as a Head of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs, representative or official of a State or international organization who is entitled to special protection in a foreign State, and his/her family; and
• Requires parties to criminalize and make punishable “by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature” the intentional murder, kidnapping or other attack upon the person or liberty of an internationally protected person, a violent attack upon the official premises, the private accommodations, or the means of transport of such person; a threat or attempt to commit such an attack; and an act “constituting participation as an accomplice”.

Instruments regarding the taking of hostages

• Provides that “any person who seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure, or to continue to detain another person in order to compel a third party, namely, a State, an international intergovernmental organization, a natural or juridical person, or a group of persons, to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage commits the offence of taking of hostage within the meaning of this Convention”.

 Instruments regarding the nuclear material

• Criminalizes the unlawful possession, use, transfer or theft of nuclear material and threats to use nuclear material to cause death, serious injury or substantial property damage.

• Makes it legally binding for States Parties to protect nuclear facilities and material in peaceful domestic use, storage as well as transport; and
• Provides for expanded cooperation between and among States regarding rapid measures to locate and recover stolen or smuggled nuclear material, mitigate any radiological consequences or sabotage, and prevent and combat related offences.

Instruments regarding the maritime navigation

• Establishes a legal regime applicable to acts against international maritime navigation that is similar to the regimes established for international aviation; and
• Makes it an offence for a person unlawfully and intentionally to seize or exercise control over a ship by force, threat, or intimidation; to perform an act of violence against a person on board a ship if that act is likely to endanger the safe navigation of the ship; to place a destructive device or substance aboard a ship; and other acts against the safety of ships.

• Criminalizes the use of a ship as a device to further an act of terrorism;
• Criminalizes the transport on board a ship various materials knowing that they are intended to be used to cause, or in a threat to cause, death or serious injury or damage to further an act of terrorism;
• Criminalizes the transporting on board a ship of persons who have committed an act of terrorism; and
• Introduces procedures for governing the boarding of a ship believed to have committed an offence under the Convention.

• Establishes a legal regime applicable to acts against fixed platforms on the continental shelf that is similar to the regimes established against international aviation.

• Adapts the changes to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation to the context of fixed platforms located on the continental shelf.

 Instrument regarding explosive materials

• Designed to control and limit the used of unmarked and undetectable plastic explosives
• Parties are obligated in their respective territories to ensure effective control over “unmarked” plastic explosive, i.e., those that do not contain one of the detection agents described in the Technical Annex to the treaty;
• Each party must, inter alia, take necessary and effective measures to prohibit and prevent the manufacture of unmarked plastic explosives; prevent the movement of unmarked plastic explosives into or out of its territory; exercise strict and effective control over possession and transfer of unmarked explosives made or imported prior to the entry into force of the Convention; ensure that all stocks of unmarked explosives not held by the military or police are destroyed, consumed, marked, or rendered permanently ineffective within three years; take necessary measures to ensure that unmarked plastic explosives held by the military or police are destroyed, consumed, marked or rendered permanently ineffective within fifteen years; and, ensure the destruction, as soon as possible, of any unmarked explosives manufactured after the date of entry into force of the Convention for that State.

Instrument regarding terrorist bombings

• Creates a regime of universal jurisdiction over the unlawful and intentional use of explosives and other lethal devices in, into, or against various defined public places with intent to kill or cause serious bodily injury, or with intent to cause extensive destruction of the public place.

 Instrument regarding the financing of terrorism

• Requires parties to take steps to prevent and counteract the financing of terrorists, whether direct or indirect, through groups claiming to have charitable, social or cultural goals or which also engage in illicit activities such as drug trafficking or gun running;
• Commits States to hold those who finance terrorism criminally, civilly or administratively liable for such acts; and
• Provides for the identification, freezing and seizure of funds allocated for terrorist activities, as well as for the sharing of the forfeited funds with other States on a case-by-case basis. Bank secrecy is no longer adequate justification for refusing to cooperate.

Instrument regarding nuclear terrorism

• Covers a broad range of acts and possible targets, including nuclear power plants and nuclear reactors;
• Covers threats and attempts to commit such crimes or to participate in them, as an accomplice;
• Stipulates that offenders shall be either extradited or prosecuted;Instrument regarding nuclear terrorism
• Encourages States to cooperate in preventing terrorist attacks by sharing information and assisting each other in connection with criminal investigations and extradition proceedings; and
• Deals with both crisis situations (assisting States to solve the situation) and post-crisis situations (rendering nuclear material safe through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).