Terrorist Financing Convention

Terrorist Financing Convention
International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism
Type Anti-terrorism, International criminal law
Drafted 9 December 1999
Signed 10 January 2000[1]
Location New York, United States
Effective 10 April 2002
Condition 22 ratifications
Signatories 132
Parties 187
Depositary United Nations Secretary-General
Languages Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish

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 July 2015, the treaty has been ratified by 187 states; in terms of universality, it is therefore one of the most successful anti-terrorism treaties in history.

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 187 states, which includes all but nine 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, Lebanon, Somalia, South Sudan, Tuvalu, and Zambia. (Burundi and Somalia have signed the convention but have not yet ratified it.)

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

Further reading

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