2007 Issue 1 - New York City Bar Association

I N T E R N A T I O N A L S E C U R I T Y A F F A I R S
establish jurisdiction over suspected offenders located in their territory
and prosecute or extradite them.
(B) 2005 International Convention for the Suppression
of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism
A recent development in the network of anti-terrorism treaties was
the adoption of a convention addressing terrorist acts using, threatening
to use, or aiming to use nuclear weapons or radiological bombs or involving
damage to a nuclear reactor or facility. It also encourages States to
cooperate in preventing terrorist attacks by sharing information and assisting
each other in connection with criminal investigations and extradition
proceedings. On April 13, 2005, the General Assembly adopted the
treaty, and it opened for signature on September 14. It will enter into
force when ratified by 22 states. Under its provisions, alleged offenders
must be either extradited or prosecuted. It excludes activities of armed
forces during an armed conflict, while also providing that it does not
address the issue of the legality of the use or threat of use of nuclear
weapons by states.
(C) Assessing the Anti-Terrorism Treaty Regime
The value that most of these treaties bring to the fight against terrorism
is that they require states to take action against terrorist acts or actors
within their territories and to ensure that their legal systems, particularly
their criminal codes, are equipped to address these crimes. There have
been some successes associated with these treaties. For example, in 1986,
John F. Murphy, an expert on international terrorism, noted a general
decline in aircraft hijacking “due in part to the preventive techniques
mandated by [the International Civil Aviation] conventions and now
employed both in airports and aboard aircraft.” 19 Although the author
observed that hijackings were on the rise again because hijackers were
learning to avoid the security devices, he found that “[t]here is also ample
evidence that hijackers have been submitted for prosecution either in the
states where they have been found or in states to which they have been
extradited. The [International Civil Aviation] conventions appear to have
played a useful role in support of these prosecutions.” 20
The treaties on terrorism, however, are limited in what they are able
19. John F. Murphy, The Future of Multilateralism and Efforts to Combat International Terrorism,
25 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 35, 45 (1986).
20. Id.
T H E R E C O R D
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