A report published by New York Center for Foreign Policy Affairs (NYCFPA) focused on counterterrorism and international laws. Terrorism acts can undermine governments, undercut civil society, cause havoc on security and peace, jeopardise economic and social growth, and could particularly adversely affect certain sets of people like children and women. For this reason, the report of NYCFPA addressed Human Rights Law and Counter-Terrorism. It also discussed International Criminal Law and Terrorism. In addition, the report focused on International Refugee Law and Counter-Terrorism.
States, in order to meet their responsibilities under human right law to safeguard the security and life of persons under their authority, have a right and a responsibility to take efficient counter-terrorism measures so as to stop and discourage future terrorist assaults and to adequately punish those that are guilty of perpetrating such terrorist activities.
International Humanitarian Law and Counter-Terrorism
International humanitarian law comes to be essential when violence, comprising parties carrying weapons, has attained intensity enough to result in an armed war, be it transnational or regional sort of conflict. International humanitarian law holds likewise in the military occupation context.
Human Rights Law and Counter-Terrorism
The width of international human rights law main beliefs is extensive, with human rights obligations and standards working at the core of national, regional and intercontinental counter-terrorism reactions. However, there is a basic and perpetual pressure between preserving human rights and fulfilling national security obligations.
International Criminal Law and Terrorism
For more than 40 years, under the direction of the United Nations, the international community, has established 13 agreements regarding the manner of averting and quashing of terrorist actions. These sectorial apparatuses which looks into matters such as the illegal capture of airplane and captivity of hostages and the clampdown of extremist bombings add to the universal legal system against terrorist acts and make available a guide for international collaboration. They demand countries to take particular steps to avert the institution of terrorism and prohibit terrorist-related crimes, like compelling States to outlaw certain conduct, institute specific jurisdictional principles and make available a legal base for collaboration on judicial law and extradition (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 2008).
International Refugee Law and Counter-Terrorism
International refugee law is the implication of the international legal structure regulating counter-terrorism, which is echoed in the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Various United Nations organisations have become entwined in counter-terrorism matters because they consider it essential rather than by design, even though what their rules on these issues may be is not generally distiince.
The report concluded that international refugee law was not initially intended to be or applied as a counter-terrorism instrument. For this reason, its credentials as a vital legal system in the international counter-terrorism legal structure holds the possibility to unfavourably impact on the safeguarding of refugees and asylum seekers, affording such people less instead of equal or extra security. International refugee law ought to be designed particularly for the counter-terrorism purpose.
The report affirmed for as long as terrorism exists, states will take countermeasures to guarantee the protection and security of their citizens. Likewise, there will be actions to avert and fight back against such actions. Worthy of note is the fact that the impact of actions of counter terrorisms must not be felt by innocent citizens who have nothing to do with it. It is of utmost essentiality to respect and conform to principles of human rights in counterterrorism context, inasmuch as a common objective of terrorist actions is to try to undercut those same rights and basic liberties.
The report also added that the international law attempts to guard innocent citizens from the impact of retaliatory actions about which they know more or less nothing. International refugee law is the section of law which affords a particular legal structure for the safeguarding of refugees by describing the expression refugee , outlining countries’ responsibilities to them and instituting principles for their handling.
The report argued that the application of refugee law together with extradition law, criminal law, and human rights law is capable of serving an essential function with respect to properly certifying that anybody implicated in terrorist actions is deprived of refugee security. On the other hand, safeguarding the interests of national security by indicting persons in conformity to due process, preserving the privileges and security of the most susceptible, and executing other suitable processes to safeguard fundamental human rights, retains the rule of law preservation at the core of counterterrorism responses.
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