Annual Report - National Human Rights Commission

Annexure 16
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that it travels beyond the capacity of the ordinary law enforcement agencies to tackle it under the
ordinary penal law. Experience has shown us that ‘terrorism’ is generally an attempt to acquire
helplessness in the minds of the people at large or any section thereof and is a totally abnormal
phenomenon. What distinguishes ‘terrorism’ from other forms of violence, therefore, appears to
be the deliberate and systematic use of coercive intimidation…”
Different aspects of terrorism have been a concern of world community. The problem of hijacking
was dealt with in the 1963 Tokyo Convention, 1970 Hague Convention and 1971 Montreal
Convention. Though there have been as many as 12 conventions and a declaration dealing with
the subject but it was the killing of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics which led to the
inscribing of international terrorism on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly in
1972 at the request of the then Secretary General of United Nation and the problem of international
terrorism was confronted both politically and legally and in its entirety rather than concentrating
on any specific acts of terror. The menace, however, still continues and is on the rise globally.
Conflicts and Terrorism have today emerged as serious threats to the humanity. They pose serious
challenges to the international community. It is a strange paradox that while on the one hand,
higher and better international human rights and humanitarian standards have evolved over the
past five or six decades, on the other hand conflicts and newer forms of terrorism, which threaten
human rights of people the world over, are on the rise and becoming more and more dangerous.
One also finds resort to the use of more and more deadlier and lethal weapons, deliberate targeting
of civilians, forced starvation of civilians and resort to rape and other sexual violations besides
taking hostages etc. Scientific and technological developments as well as the global network of
communications are being viciously exploited by terrorists. What is a matter of serious concern
is the existence of trans-national networks of terrorist organizations, which have a nexus with
arms and drug traffickers and crime syndicates. Today’s terrorists have modern technology to
help them, permitting rapid international communications, travel and the transfer of monies.
They have links with others of like mind across international borders. What makes it even more
dangerous are recent media reports that they may well have access to weapons of mass destruction
including biological weapons.
It must be remembered that there is a clear and emphatic relationship between national security
and the security and integrity of the individuals who comprise the state. Between them, there is
a symbiosis and no antagonism. The nation has no meaning without its people. The worth of a
nation is the worth of the individuals constituting the nation. This is the emphasis laid in the
Constitution of India, which holds out the promise to secure both simultaneously. Just as there
can be no peace without justice, there cannot be any freedom without human rights. International
terrorism is a modern form of warfare against liberal democracies and needs to be dealt with as
such. The goal of these terrorists is to destroy the very fabric of democracy and it would be
wrong for any democratic state to consider international terrorism to be “someone else’s” problem.
The liberal democracies must, therefore, acknowledge that international terrorism is a collective
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