A Good Day
Its a good day for civilians. They are one step closer to being out of a free fire zone, one step closer to an affirmation of the concept of civilian immunity.
Finally, a UN panel on global threats has defined terrorism as “any action … that is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or noncombatants, when the purpose of such an 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.”
That seems rather self-evident but for years the concept of legitimizing deliberate harm to civilians was resisted in the UN. The “freedom fighter” who targeted civilians was legitimzed as acting from a postion of inferior strenth and resources. In Beslan we saw the logical extension of this thinking.
Occupied peoples struggling for self determination, the report says, to not have a basis in international law for victimizing civilians to achieve their goals or publicity: “There is nothing in the fact of occupation that justifies the targeting and killing of civilians,” the panel agreed said.
By removing this tool, terrorism, from the globally acceptable tactics of resistance, the UN presupposes an effective mechanism within international law and international institutions to advance the interests of occupied persons, seperatists, and others with a political agenda who face an overwhelming power.
