Secretariat - Action against Terrorism Unit

Most terrorism today is international and, therefore, cross-border. As a result, two or more jurisdictions' legal co-operation is usually necessary to successfully investigate terrorism related crimes and prosecute their perpetrators.

Unfortunately, different legal systems, the absence of multilateral or bilateral agreements on legal assistance or extradition and, at times, human rights concerns, represent serious obstacles to international co-operation aimed at preventing terrorist acts and assuring punishment of terrorists and their supporters.

Recognizing these difficulties, UN Security Council resolutions 1373, 1456 and 1566 call on States "to cooperate fully in the fight against terrorism, especially with those States where or against whose citizens terrorist acts are committed, in accordance with their obligations under international law, in order to find, deny safe haven and bring to justice, on the basis of the principle to extradite or prosecute, any person who supports, facilitates, participates or attempts to participate in the financing, planning, preparation or commission of terrorist acts or provides safe havens". 

In the absence of bilateral treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance (MLA), the international legal framework, particularly the universal anti-terrorism conventions and protocols and the Palermo Convention against transnational organized crime, as well as applicable regional treaties, provide a basis for legal co-operation in criminal matters. The ATU promotes broader use of such a basis for extradition and MLA.

The OSCE participating States have committed themselves to enhance legal co-operation in criminal matters to counter terrorism in the OSCE Ljubljana Ministerial Council Decision 4/05.

So far, the ATU has organized, in partnership with UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), nine events promoting international co-operation in criminal matters related to terrorism. These include three large scale OSCE-wide workshops in Vienna (April 2005, March 2006 and March 2007), three sub-regional workshops (Bucharest in November 2006 for Central and South-Eastern Europe, and Antalya in February 2007 for Central Asia and Caucasus) and three national workshops in Belgrade (December 2005), Yerevan (June 2006) and Ankara (April 2008). The latest was jointly organized by the OSCE, the UNODC and the Council of Europe.

In total, some 870 legal practitioners (prosecutors and judges) and other officials from 64 OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation attended these OSCE workshops. They had an opportunity to discuss major legal developments with the UNODC and other international experts, such as the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee and High Commissioner for Refugees, the Council of Europe, the CIS Anti-Terrorism Centre, the Commonwealth Secretariat, Interpol, Europol and Eurojust.

These workshops focused on the following objectives:

• Strengthening political will in favour of international co-operation in criminal matters related to terrorism;
• Promoting the universal and, were applicable, European legal framework related to terrorism and co-operation in criminal matters;
• Promoting human rights in the fight against terrorism as a prerequisite for successful co-operation in extradition and MLA;
• Promoting UNODC technical assistance tools for co-operation in criminal matters, including the "Mutual Legal Assistance Request Writing Tool" software.
• Facilitating sub-regional judicial and law enforcement networking and informal information exchange.

For more information, please contact the ATU directly.