Pakistan's President Mamnoon Hussain shakes hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Strengthening security architecture in the Eurasian region is one of the key goals for the eight-member grouping

NEW DELHI: India’s proposal for UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) got a shot in the arm when the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) said in a declaration on Sunday that a comprehensive UN treaty on fighting international terrorism should be passed by reaching consensus based on UN documents such as the Charter of the United Nations.

“The member states will boost cooperation in fighting the spread and propaganda of terrorist ideas on the Internet, including public justification of terrorism, the recruitment of new members to terrorist groups, incitement to commit terrorist acts, financing of terrorism and the spread of information about ways to carry out terrorist attacks on the Internet,” read the SCO declaration adopted at the two-day Qingdao summit.

The declaration suggested that the global community pool its efforts to counter attempts to lure young people into terrorist, extremist and separatist groups. Besides, SCO members expressed concern about “threats emerging from the growing production, trade and misuse of narcotic substances, as well as from the use of proceeds of illicit drug trafficking for financing terrorism”.

The SCO is among the few regional groupings that have a separate body – RATS, in this case, based in Tashkent – to counter terrorism on the ground. Strengthening security architecture in the Eurasian region is one of the key goals for the eight-member grouping.

The CCIT is currently being discussed at the Sixth Ad Hoc Committee of the United Nations and has been blocked by the USA, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states and South American countries over definition of ‘terrorism’. The OIC wants exclusion of national liberation movements, especially in the context of Israel-Palestinian conflict. The US wanted the CCIT draft to exclude acts committed by military forces of states during peacetime. The Modi government has urged several member states of the OIC to adopt the CCIT.

The global community has so far failed to develop rules under which terrorists shall be prosecuted or extradited. The CCIT would give “legal teeth to prosecute terrorist acts”, according to Indian officials. India has raised the issue of the need for endorsement of the CCIT across several bilateral and multilateral forums for the past two decades, irrespective of governments in Delhi. The CCIT provides a legal framework which makes it binding on all signatories to deny funds and safe havens to terrorist groups.

Although consensus has so far eluded adoption of the terrorism convention, discussions have yielded three separate protocols that aim to tackle terrorism – International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, adopted on December 15, 1997; International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, adopted on December 9, 1999; and International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, adopted on April 13, 2005.

Besides the CCIT, fight against corruption including information sharing was included in the SCO declaration in what can be viewed as an endorsement of the Modi government’s appeal for global fight against corruption.

The document stressed that corruption in all its manifestations poses a threat to national and regional security, decreasing the efficiency of state management, negatively affecting investment attractiveness and hindering social and economic development. “The member states call for boosting international cooperation in the fight against corruption, particularly through exchanging experiences and information,” read the declaration.