TERRORISM AND ITS IMPACT ON HUMAN RIGHTS & INTERNATIONAL

HUMANITARIAN LAW.

ABSTRACT

Terrorism is commonly understood to refer to acts of violence that target civilians in the
pursuit of political or ideological aims. In legal terms, although the international community
has yet to adopt a comprehensive definition of terrorism, existing declarations, and
resolutions and universal “sectoral” treaties relating to specific aspects of it define certain
acts and core elements. In 1994, the General Assembly’s Declaration on Measures to
Eliminate International Terrorism, set out in its resolution 49/60, stated 6 that terrorism
includes “criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general
public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes” and that such acts “are
in any circumstances unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical,
ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that may Sbe invoked to justify them.”
Here, the research would like to focus upon the most notorious terrorist group ISIS.

ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. ISIS is a Sunni militant group that
occupies parts of Syria and Iraq. They are also known as ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and
Levant. It is estimated that their membership encompasses just under 10,000 members
between Syria and Iraq. The particularly dangerous element to ISIS is the fact that an
estimated 3,000 of its members are foreigners, with international visas and the ability to
travel freely, including their presence in America. ISIS is a Salafism zihadist that follows an
Islamic fundamaentalists, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. The group is also known
as Deish. The group has referred to itself as the Islamic State. As a caliphate, it claims
religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide. The group originated
as Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and
participated in theIraqi insurgency. The group’s adoption of the name “Islamic State” and
idea of a caliphate have been widely criticised, with the United Nations, various
governments, and mainstream Muslim groups rejecting its statehood or caliphhood . Adept
at social media, ISIL became notorious for its videos of beheadings of both soldiers and
civilians, including journalists and aid workers, and for the destruction of cultural heritage
sites. The United Nations holds ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes,
and Amnesty International has charged the group with ethnic cleansing on a “historic scale”
in northern Iraq. Around the world, Islamic religious leaders have overwhelmingly
condemned ISIL’s ideology and actions, arguing that the group has strayed from the path of
true Islam and that its actions do not reflect the religion’s real teachings or virtues. The group
has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, the European Union and
its member states, the United States, India, Indonesia, Israel, Turkey, Saudi
Arabia, Syria, Iran and other countries. Over 60 countries are directly or indirectly waging
against ISIS. It is very dangerous because of their mobility. They are also ruthless and
extremely violent, carrying out mass beheadings as a regular practice of territorial control.
Their laws are strict and absolute; often utilizing archaic methods of punishment not seen in
the modern era. Thieves are punished by their hands being cut off. Christians, Shiite Muslims
and Iraqi Yazidis are victims of persecution on religious basis only and often murdered. Since
at least 2004, a significant goal of the group has been the foundation of a Sunni Islamic State
Specifically, ISIL has sought to establish itself as a caliphate an Islamic state led by a group
of religious authorities under a supreme leader-the caliph-who is believed to be the successor
to Prophet Muhammad. The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-
Sham (ISIS), follows a distinctive variety of Islam whose beliefs about the path to the Day of
Judgment matter to its strategy, and can help the West know its enemy and predict its
behaviour. The research would be further discussing about the abuses against ISIS and the
measures that has been adopted by UNO to prohibit terrorism through various conventions in
detail.

SUBMITTED BY

SATYA HARITHA.P

ROLL NO: 2015110

SEMESTER VI & SEC-B