Position paper
Committee- United Nations Security Council
Agenda- Addressing challenges of state sponsored terrorism: formulating
comprehensive strategies for international cooperation and counteraction
Portfolio- United States of America
Context and state position
Today's terrorist landscape is more fluid and complex than ever. For this reason, counterterrorism remains a top
priority for the US Administration. Our principal terrorist enemies are radical Islamist terrorist groups that seek
to conduct attacks globally, violate our borders, and radicalize and recruit potential extremists within the United
States and abroad.
Under the leadership of President Joe Biden, the United States has accelerated efforts to defeat those terrorists
who pose a threat to the United States. For instance, working with coalition partners, we have liberated nearly
all of the territory once controlled by the self-declared Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in Iraq and
Syria. While we have made much progress, additional challenges remain. This means that we must undertake
additional efforts to prevent terrorists from acquiring or using weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and other
advanced attack capabilities.
Past actions
In resolutions 2462 (2019) and 2482 (2019), the Security Council highlights the value of financial intelligence
and financial investigation in counter-terrorism and includes new and focused requirements in this regard. In
resolution 2462 (2019), it also calls for strengthening frameworks allowing competent national authorities, in
particular FIUs, intelligence services, law enforcement agencies, prosecutorial and/or judicial authorities, to
gather and share information on the financing of terrorism; as well as to accelerate the timely exchange of
relevant operational information and financial intelligence of terrorist networks, including FTFs and FTF
returnees and relocators.
In its resolution 2395 (2017), the Council encourages Member States to consider developing comprehensive and
integrated national counter-terrorism strategies and effective mechanisms to implement them that include
attention to the conditions conducive to terrorism, in accordance with their obligations under international law,
and encourages further the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate to, inter alia, cooperate with
Member States and international, regional and subregional organizations, and other relevant partners, upon
request, to assess and advise on formulating such strategies and the mechanisms to implement them.
Solutions
a) Making efforts to conduct international cooperation through bilateral, regional and multilateral
agreements and arrangements, particularly by promoting all forms of information exchange helpful to
the fight against terrorism, providing legal assistance in terms of investigation, evidence-collection,
arrest and prosecution procedures involving acts of terrorism, and extraditing or handing over by other
means criminals to relevant authorities of countries concerned, in accordance with domestic laws as
well as obligations provided for in international treaties.
b) Developed countries should provide to other Member States upon request necessary anti-terrorism
technologies, financial assistance and training and help the latter to strengthen their anti-terrorism
capacity building.
c) The United Nations and its Security Council should play a leading role in the fight against terrorism. It
is recommended that the Security Council should establish an anti-terrorism mechanism to explore and
formulate and conduct concrete programs for the fight against terrorism.
d) It is recommended by the delegation of the US that UN Secretariat strengthen its capacity of
information-collection and analysis in the field of counter-terrorism and report to the Security Council
periodically.
e) The fight against terrorism should be conducted in accordance with the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations and other established norms of international law. There should be a
comprehensive approach, involving political, diplomatic, economic and other means, to address both
the problem of terrorism and its underlying causes, in an effort to eliminate the root causes of terrorism.
f) States should have in place a legal provision that provides for the freezing of terrorist funds and assets
pursuant to resolution 1373 (2001) and establish a designating mechanism with adequate due process
consideration, as well as a dedicated mechanism to address foreign asset-freezing requests.
g) Criminalization should be in accordance with article 6 of the International Convention for the
Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, that is to say, criminal acts cannot be justifiable by
considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature.
