Terrorism represents a major threat to the international community, especially to countries with weak counterterrorism legislation and criminal justice systems. Terrorist groups aim to destablize governments and foster economic and social stability. This objective can be more easily achieved if a country lacks sufficient capacity to deal with counterterrorism matters.
To respond to these threats, the international community developed a legal framework that consists, in addition to several United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, 19 international legally binding instruments related to the prevention and suppression of international terrorism*. Covering a wide range of terrorist offences, these conventions and protocols create obligations for state parties to criminalise offences at the national level, establish the obligation to extradite or prosecute as well as develop mechanisms to enhance international cooperation in criminal matters.
UNODC’s Terrorism Prevention Branch is entrusted by the General Assembly to deliver technical assistance to requesting the Member States to become party to the 19 international instruments against terrorism and promote universal adherence to all the international legal framework.
In 2020, Cuba became the fifth country in the world to ratify, accede or otherwise become party to all 19 international instruments, showcasing its commitment to strengthening the international legal regime against terrorism. Full adherence to these instruments commenced in 2016 when the Dominican Republic finalized this process, followed by Côte D’Ivoire in 2017 as well as Kazakhstan and Turkey, who became party to all 19 conventions and protocols in 2019.
However, assisting requesting Member States to become party to the 19 international instruments against terrorism is only one of many of UNODC’s mandated responsibilities. For example, UNODC is also entrusted to support States’ to effectively implement these conventions through the incorporation of their provisions into national legislation to strengthen their national legal and criminal justice frameworks.
In 2020, 15 instruments of ratification, accession, approval, or acceptance of the 19 instruments were deposited by UN Member States. This brings the total adherence rate of these instruments to 67.4%.
To keep track of the status of adherence to these conventions and protocols, UNODC has developed the SHERLOC knowledge management portal, which includes a treaties database providing the latest ratification status of Member States to the relevant international and regional instruments.
The 19 international legal instruments against terrorism are:
