Context: Recently, India’s External Affairs Minister has addressed the High-Level Segment of the 46th Session of Human Rights Council (HRC) and highlighted India’s commitment to human rights and its fight against terrorism.

• India’s approach to the UN Human Rights Council is guided by the spirit of engagement, dialogue and consultation.
• It believes that equal emphasis should be placed on both the promotion and protection of human rights as both are best pursued through dialogue, consultation and cooperation among States as well as technical assistance and capacity building.

Terrorism

An offence to intimidate a population or to compel a government or an international organisation to do or abstain from doing any act, which causes:

• Death or serious bodily injury to any person.
• 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.
• Damage to property, places, facilities, or systems resulting in or likely to result in a major economic loss.
• It encompasses a range of complex threats like organized terrorism in conflict zones, foreign terrorist fighters, radicalised ‘lone wolves’, etc.

Factors Responsible for Growth of Terrorism

• State-sponsorship and safe havens.
• State-of-the-art communication systems.
• Access to advanced technology.
• Networking of terrorist groups with the criminal underworld.

Impacts

• It poses a major threat to international peace and security and undermines the core values of humanity, peace and growth.
• In addition to the devastating human cost of terrorism, in terms of lives lost or permanently altered, terrorist acts destabilise governments and undermine economic and social development.

Terrorist acts often defy national borders.

• Terrorist attacks using CBRNE materials (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives) have catastrophic consequences on communities and infrastructure.

Global Efforts

• Across the globe, the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) leads and coordinates an all-of-UN approach to prevent and counter-terrorism and violent extremism.
• UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) under UNOCT, promotes international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and supports the Member States in implementing the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
• The Terrorism Prevention Branch (TPB) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) plays a significant role in international efforts.
• It works to assist the Member States, upon request, with the ratification, legislative incorporation and implementation of the universal legal framework against terrorism.
• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which is a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, sets international standards that aim to prevent these illegal activities and the harm they cause to society.

Steps taken by India

• India has been at the forefront of global action against terrorism and has always played an active role in the global promotion and protection of human rights.
• India, which has been a victim of cross-border terrorism, took cognizance of the threat long before the major world powers.
• It is a crime against humanity and violates the most Fundamental Human Right, namely the Right to Life (Article 21).
• India has taken steps for setting up Joint Working Groups (JWGs) on counter-terrorism/security matters with countries. Bilateral treaties on Mutual Legal Assistance (MLATs) in Criminal matters to facilitate the investigation, collection of evidence, transfer of witnesses, location and action against proceeds of crime, etc. have been signed with other countries.
• In 2018, India highlighted its demand for a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
• In 1996, with the objective of providing a comprehensible legal framework to counter-terrorism, India proposed to the UNGA the adoption of CCIT.

It included the following major objectives:

• To have a universal definition of terrorism that all members would adopt into their own criminal laws.
• To ban all terror groups and shut down terror camps.
• To prosecute all terrorists under special laws.
• To make cross-border terrorism an extraditable offence worldwide.

Addressing the UN High-Level Conference on Heads of Counter-Terrorism (2018), India extended a five-point formula.

• In January 2021, at the 20th anniversary of the UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1373, India presented an eight-point action plan to deal with the scourge of terrorism.

1. Summoning the political will to unhesitatingly combat terrorism.
2. Decrying double standards in the fight against terrorism.
3. Reform of the working methods of the Committees dealing with Sanctions and Counter-Terrorism.
4. Firmly discouraging exclusivist thinking that divides the world and harms social fabric.
5. Enlisting and delisting individuals and entities under the UN sanctions regimes objectively not for political or religious considerations.
6. Fully recognising and addressing the link between terrorism and transnational organized crime.
7. Combating terrorist financing.
8. Immediate attention to adequate funding to UN Counter-Terrorism bodies from the UN regular budget.

• Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System: It vastly improves the capability of Border Security Force (BSF) in detecting and controlling the cross border crimes like illegal infiltration, smuggling of contraband goods, human trafficking and cross border terrorism, etc.
• Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967: It enables more effective prevention of certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations and for dealing with terrorist activities, and other related matters.
• National Investigation Agency: It is India's counter-terrorist task force and is empowered to deal with terror related crimes across states without special permission from the states.
• Policy of Zero-Tolerance Against Terrorism: India calls for zero-tolerance agianst terrorism and focuses on developing a common strategy to curb it.

Various Counter-Terrorism Operations

• Operation Rakshak: Counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operation in Jammu and Kashmir in 1990.
• Operation Sarp Vinash: Undertaken by Indian army to flush out terrorists in the areas of the Pir Panjal range in Jammu and Kashmir in 2003.
• Operation All Out: Joint offensive launched by Indian security forces to flush out militants and terrorists in Kashmir in 2017.

Suggestions and Road Ahead

• Strong and Reformed Institutions: Multilateral institutions and mechanisms need to be strengthened and reformed to be able to deal with these emerging challenges effectively.
• Concerted Efforts: There should be a concerted effort from the countries affected by the scourge of terrorism to pressurise countries that engage in state-sponsored terrorism.

Timely and Appropriate Action: Intelligence gathering and sharing are not enough, timely and appropriate action is required on the intelligence received.

• Intelligence agencies have to be empowered both monetarily and through modern infrastructure to be able to respond in time.
• Filling and Addressing Gaps: Violation of and gaps in the implementation of human rights should be addressed in a fair and just manner, with objectivity, non-selectivity, transparency and with due respect to the principles of non-interference in internal affairs and national sovereignty.
• United Approach and Efforts: The Covid-19 pandemic has complicated the situation in many geographies so there is a need for all to come together to overcome these challenges.