UPSC 2017: Comprehensive News Analysis - June 03

1. The Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism:

• The Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism is a proposed treaty which intends to criminalize all forms of international terrorism and deny terrorists, their financiers and supporters access to funds, arms, and safe havens. Currently, the negotiations are deadlocked mainly because of differences over the definition of terrorism.
• Key Issues
• The negotiations of the Comprehensive Terrorism Convention are deadlocked because of differences over several controversial yet basic issues, including the definition of ´terrorism´.

For example:

What distinguishes a “terrorist organisation” from a ‘liberation movement’?

Are the activities of national armed forces excluded, even if they are perceived to commit acts of terrorism?

If not, how much of this constitutes ‘state terrorism’?”

The definition of terrorism, which was on the negotiating table of the Comprehensive Convention since 2002 is as follows:

• Any person commits an offence within the meaning of this Convention if that person, by any means, unlawfully and intentionally, causes:
• Death or serious bodily injury to any person; or
• Serious damage to public or private property, including a place of public use, a State or government facility, a public transportation system, an infrastructure facility or the environment; or
• Damage to property, places, facilities, or systems referred to result in major economic loss,
• When the purpose of the conduct is to intimidate threat a population, or to compel a Government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act.

Proposed Exceptions to resolve the deadlock: In order to resolve deadlock the coordinator of the negotiations, supported by most western delegations, proposed the following exceptions to address those issues:

• This convention will not affect other rights, obligations and responsibilities of States, peoples and individuals under international law especially for the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and international humanitarian law.
• This Convention will not govern the activities of armed forces during an armed conflict, as those terms are understood under international humanitarian law, which are governed by that law.
• Even the activities undertaken by the military forces of a State in the exercise of their official duties, inasmuch as they are governed by other rules of international law, will be not governed by this Convention.
• The state members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference proposed the following exceptions instead of western delegation:
• This convention will not govern the activities of the parties during an armed conflict, including in situations of foreign occupation, as those terms are understood under international humanitarian law, which are governed by that law.
• The activities undertaken by the military forces of a State in the exercise of their official duties, inasmuch as they are in conformity with international law, will be not governed by this Convention.

India’s stand: India has been advocating for early adoption of the CCIT and has called the global community India had called upon the worldwide community to promote the anti-terror legal framework and execute the Global Counter Terrorism Strategy in an integrated manner. India is of the view that comprehensiveness of the Global Counter Terrorism Strategy will not be concluded devoid of the conclusion of the CCIT which is at an important phase of discussion before the UN. 

2. Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD)

• The IISS Asia Security Summit: The Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) is a “Track One” inter-governmental security forum held annually by an independent think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) which is attended by defense ministers, permanent heads of ministries and military chiefs of 28 Asia-Pacific states.
• The forum gets its name from the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore where it has been held since 2002.
• The summit serves to cultivate a sense of community among the most important policymakers in the defence and security community in the region. While primarily an inter-governmental meeting, the summit is also attended by legislators, academic experts, distinguished journalists and business delegates.
• The participants have included Australia, Brunei, Burma(Myanmar), Cambodia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, People’s Republic of China, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, East Timor, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

3. The Paris Agreement

• The Paris Agreement or Paris climate accord and Paris climate agreement, is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020.
• Main intention:
• Agreement to slow the process of global warming by making efforts to “hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”.
• Decision to limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to a level that can be naturally absorbed by trees, soils and oceans.
• Developed countries were also told to provide financial resources to help developing countries in dealing with climate change and for adaptation measures. As part of a review mechanism, developed countries were also asked to communicate every two years the “indicative” amount of money they would be able to raise over the next two years, and information on how much of it would come from public financial sources. In contrast, developing countries have only been “encouraged” to provide such information every two years on a voluntary basis.
• The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Paris and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015.
• As of June 2017, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, 148 of which have ratified it.
• In the Paris Agreement, each country determines its own contribution it should make in order to mitigate global warming.
• There is no mechanism to force a country to set a specific target by a specific date.