04 October 2001

United Kingdom Named Chair of the UN Terrorism Committee

United Nations -- The United Kingdom has been named chairman of the United Nations Security Council's new "terrorism committee" which will monitor compliance by all UN member states with the Council's latest resolution aimed at preventing and suppressing the financing of terrorist acts.

Colombia, Mauritius and Russia will serve as vice chairmen, according to an announcement October 4 by Security Council President Richard Ryan of Ireland. The other eleven members of the Council will make up the remainder of the committee.

The committee, which is being referred to as the "terrorism committee," was mandated under resolution 1373 adopted on September 28, 2001. All UN member states must comply with the resolution, which was adopted under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.

Resolution 1373 requires nations to "freeze without delay funds and other financial assets or economic resources of persons who commit, or attempt to commit, terrorist acts or participate in or facilitate the commission of terrorist acts." Nations are also to "refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to entities or persons involved in terrorist acts, including by suppressing recruitment of members of terrorist groups and eliminating the supply of weapons to terrorists."

Nations are also to prohibit their nationals or people in their territories from making funds or services available to those involved in terrorism; refrain from providing support to people involved in terrorism; take steps to prevent terrorist acts; and deny safe haven to those who commit terrorist acts. Nations should also bring to justice anyone who participated in terrorism and ensure that terrorist acts are serious criminal offenses in their domestic laws and are punished accordingly.

The UNSC resolution also says that UN member states should help each other with criminal investigations and criminal proceedings, intensifying and accelerating the exchange of information. They also should prevent the movement of terrorists and terrorist groups by effective border controls as well as through controls on the issuance of identity papers and travel documents and measures for preventing counterfeiting, forgery or fraudulent use of identity papers and travel documents.

Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, committee chairman, held the first formal meeting of the group October 4 soon after his appointment was announced.

Vice chairmen are Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso of Colombia, Ambassador Jagdish Koonjul of Mauritius, and Ambassador Sergey Lavrov of Russia.

"It has been established by the Security Council that the threat of terrorism is a threat to international peace and security and it is in that context that the Security Council will be following-up 1373," Greenstock told journalists outside the Council chambers.

"It's the responsibility of the terrorism committee to liaise with member states on the mandatory action that they will take under 1373 to carry out the requirements of that resolution, to assist member states if they want assistance from the Security Council or from the UN in that purpose," the UK Ambassador said.

"We will be working very closely with the Secretary General, with the Secretariat and a certain amount of outside expertise in that business and will report back to the Council with analysis and information on the whole process of implementation of 1373," said Greenstock.

In the next few weeks the committee will inform member states of exactly what reporting and what information is required. Greenstock said that after that the committee will begin to discuss procedures for checking and verifying the information submitted. In the meantime, nations must submit their reports on what actions they have taken to the committee within 90 days.

The chairman also stressed that "it will not be for the committee to make judgments or decision or follow-up. That will be for the Security Council as a whole. It is for the committee to monitor, to inform, to collect information and to analyze, but not to make judgments or decisions."

Council President Ryan was asked about the possibility of the Council imposing sanctions on members states that do not comply with the resolution. He noted that adhering to the resolution "will take some time" and some member states will need help on how they should address their administrations, legal systems, and so on in order to comply and Council members envisage the United Nations providing that help.

Ryan was doubtful that sanctions would be necessary, because, he said, after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States "we have gotten to a point where the whole of the United Nations has swung around enthusiastically and cooperatively...behind the terms of this resolution."