The use of the Internet

18
THE USE OF THE INTERNET FOR TERRORIST PURPOSES
Member States to become parties to the universal counter-terrorism legal instruments,
the rate of adherence to these instruments has increased significantly. As at June 2011,
two thirds of Member States had either ratified or acceded to at least 10 of the 16
universal counter-terrorism instruments. 38
49. There is currently no comprehensive United Nations treaty on terrorism that is
applicable to an exhaustive list of the manifestations of terrorism. Similarly, the international
community has yet to agree on an internationally binding definition of the
term “terrorism”, 39 owing largely to the difficulty of devising a universally acceptable
legal categorization for acts of violence committed by States, by armed groups such as
liberation or self-determination movements or by individuals.
50. Member States have been engaged since 2000 in negotiations relating to a comprehensive
counter-terrorism convention, which will ultimately include a definition of
terrorism. Faced, however, with the difficulty of reaching consensus on a single, globally
accepted definition of what constitutes terrorism, progress has instead been made
through the existing universal legal instruments, which have developed along sectoral
lines. These instruments focus on criminalizing specific “terrorist acts” without defining
the broader concept of terrorism.
51. The universal instruments do not define terrorist offences as crimes under international
law. Rather, they create an obligation for States parties to the agreements to
criminalize the specified unlawful conduct under their domestic law, exercise jurisdiction
over offenders under prescribed conditions and provide for international cooperation
mechanisms that enable States parties to either prosecute or extradite the alleged offenders.
Until the successful conclusion of ongoing negotiations on a universal definition
or comprehensive convention relating to terrorism, bilateral and multilateral agreements
should provide the basis for the development of common standards to counter the use
of the Internet for terrorist purposes, in the interest of promoting international
cooperation.
52. No universal convention has been adopted specifically relating to the prevention
and suppression of terrorist use of the Internet. In December 2010, the General Assembly
adopted resolution 65/230, in which it, inter alia, endorsed the Salvador Declaration
on Comprehensive Strategies for Global Challenges: Crime Prevention and Criminal
Justice Systems and Their Development in a Changing World 40 and requested the Commission
on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to establish, in line with the Salvador
Declaration, an open-ended intergovernmental expert group to conduct a
38 See www.un.org/en/sc/ctc/laws.html.
39 It is worth noting, however, that a recent decision by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon held that there was sufficient
evidence to support the existence of a definition of the crime of terrorism under customary international law.
See Interlocutory Decision on the Applicable Law: Terrorism, Conspiracy, Homicide, Perpetration, Cumulative Charging,
Case No. STL-11-01/I, Special Tribunal for Lebanon (16 February 2011); available from www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/
stl-11-01/rule-176bis/filings/orders-and-decisions/appeals-chamber/
interlocutory-decision-on-the-applicable-law-terrorism-conspiracy-homicide-perpetration-cumulative-charging.
40 Adopted by the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, held in Salvador,
Brazil, from 12 to 19 April 2010, which addressed, inter alia, the need for Member States to consider ways of fighting
new forms of crime, such as cybercrime.