Conference: XIII Brazil Model United Nations

Committee: Counter Terrorism

Topic A: Defining International Terrorism
Delegation: The United States of America
School: Escola Americana de Campinas
Delegates: Matheus Bevilacqua & Luiza Bonfim

Topic A: Defining International Terrorism and Criminalizing Countries

for Supporting Internationally Recognized Terrorist Organizations
The United States America considers the issue of terrorism to be one of the most
crucial troubles faced by the international community today, and has placed it, as a result, on
the top of its domestic and foreign policy agenda. The U.S. recognizes that this concern is
just as important to a number of fellow UN members. After the attacks of September 11,
2001, the UN has constantly been forced to deal with a number of major terrorist threats. The
recent terrorist attacks perpetrated in the city of Paris serve as an example of the unceasing
gravity and relevance of the issue to both the safety of nations and to interstate relations.
Despite the international communitys many attempts to resolve this matter, the lack of a
universally agreed, legally binding definition has greatly hindered these efforts; the United
States accepts that countering terrorism is made more difficult by the fact that each individual
state has its own standards and parameters by which it classifies terrorism.
Despite the fact that in the (2001) General Assembly a preponderance of UN member
states failed to agree on a concrete definition for terrorism, all member states did comply to
the idea that terrorism constituted the supreme opposite of international peace and safety.
Preceding the 2005 World Summit, the U.S. voted in favor of the Security Councils
Resolution 1566 (2004), which took important measures in addressing similar issues to the
ones tackled by this committee. Furthermore, discussions during the UNs General Assembly
in 2005 lead to the decision that the right of self-determination of citizens could not, under
any circumstances, be labeled as terrorism.
The U.S. acknowledges all efforts already made by the UN in order to prevent and
combat terrorist actions and solidify a definition for the concept of terrorism; however, it
believes that detailing regarding the motives that instigate terrorist acts is necessary in such a
definition. The UN has successfully been able to recognize international crimes and come up
with solutions to oppose them; nevertheless, it has been incapable of clearly identifying
which of such acts of violence should be regarded as terrorist crimes, seeing that trouble
has existed in the past when determining the motivating forces behind these serious offenses.
A clear distinction must, therefore, be made as to whether the reasons leading to acts of terror
are ideological, religious, or political or whether they originate from legitimate attempts to
preserve a states right of self-determination, being then further analyzed by the international
community. It is thus necessary for this committee to understand that for any resolution to
successfully and effectively counter terrorism, a cohesive internationally established
definitionwhich takes into account the motivations and reasons of potential terrorist acts
of terrorism is pivotal. The United States finds that the criminalization of states supportvia
economic grants, ambushing, amongst other methodsof terrorist groups or organizations
crucial. The delegation notes that once a consensus regarding a definition for terrorism is
achieved, the process of criminalizing such states will become substantially more effective.
The U.S. is certain that such member states should then be penalized and is willing to take
part in a debate concerning which specific penalties should be established.