Terrorist Financing Convention

The Terrorist Financing Convention (formally, the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism) is a 1999 United Nations treaty designed to criminalize acts of financing acts of terrorism. The convention also seeks to promote police and judicial co-operation to prevent, investigate and punish the financing of such acts. As of October 2018, the treaty has been ratified by 188 states; in terms of universality, it is therefore one of the most successful anti-terrorism treaties in history.

Terrorist Financing Convention
TypeInternational criminal law
Drafted9 December 1999
Signed10 January 2000[1]
LocationNew York, United States
Effective10 April 2002
Condition22 Ratifications
Signatories132
Parties189
DepositaryUnited Nations Secretary-General
LanguagesArabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish

Content

Article 2.1 defines the crime of terrorist financing as the offense committed by "any person" who "by any means, directly or indirectly, unlawfully and willfully, provides or collects funds with the intention that they should be used or in the knowledge that they are to be used, in full or in part, in order to carry out" an act "intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to a civilian, or to any other person not taking an active part in the hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, when the purpose of such act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or to compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act."[2]

State parties to this treaty also commit themselves to the freezing and seizure of funds intended to be used for terrorist activities and to share the forfeited funds with all state parties. Moreover, state parties commit themselves not to use bank secrecy as a justification for refusing to co-operate in the suppression of terrorist financing.

Entry into force and ratifications

The treaty entered into force on 10 April 2002. It has been ratified by 188 states, which includes all but eight member states of the United Nations plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, and Niue. It has not been ratified by Burundi, Chad, Eritrea, Iran, Somalia, South Sudan, and Tuvalu. (Burundi and Somalia have signed the convention but have not yet ratified it.)

Impact

In 2017 Ukraine opened a case against Russia for involvement and financing of military occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and part of Donbas.[3]

See also

References
  1. First signed by Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Malta, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
  2. United Nations 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (Terrorist Financing Convention), art. 2.1
  3. "Ukraine sues Russia in International Court of Justice for 'financing terrorism' and discrimination". March 2017.

Further reading
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