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Global Issues >> Terrorism
Terrorism
Empowering the UN in War on Terrorism
An overwhelming majority favors having the UN playing a stronger
role than it has in the fight against terrorism, including strengthening
international laws on terrorism and the means to enforce them.
Overwhelming majorities support the UN Security Council being
able to require UN members to allow a UN-sponsored police force
to enter countries and conduct investigations, to freeze the
assets of suspected terrorist groups, to provide intelligence
on them, to arrest them, and if the member country refuses to
do so, to send in an international military force to capture
suspected terrorists. A strong majority favors using international
judicial bodies for trying terrorists, with a plurality even
favoring trying bin Laden before an International Criminal Tribunal
over a federal court in New York.
An overwhelming majority favors a much stronger role for
the United Nations in the fight against terrorism. In a September
14-18 Associated Press poll, an extraordinary 90% said that
the United Nations should "play a major role in pulling
countries together to fight against terrorism." On November
1-4, 85% said that they favored (67% strongly) "working
through the UN to strengthen international laws against terrorism
and to make sure UN members cooperate in enforcing them"
(PIPA, November 1-4). [1]
Perhaps most striking, strong to overwhelming majorities
favor the UN Security Council having extensive powers to make
demands on member states or to intervene in their territory
in the effort to track down terrorist groups (see below from
PIPA, November 1-4). While the UN Charter has language that
gives the UN Security Council broad powers, in practice exercising
such powers would break new ground. [2]
Trying Terrorists Before International Judicial Bodies
Support is also very strong for working through the World
Court. In an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken September
12, respondents were asked to evaluate a list of possible
responses by the US to the September
11 attacks. Seventy-five percent favored (62% strongly, 13%
somewhat) "build[ing] a case against the people who are
specifically responsible and seek[ing] justice in the World
Court."[3]
A 1998 poll by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations
also asked respondents to consider a number of options "to
combat terrorism." The most popular option, endorsed
by 84%, was "trial of suspected terrorists in an International
Criminal Court."[4]
Perhaps most dramatically, although the September 11 attack
was against US territory, if Osama Bin Laden were captured
a 49% plurality would favor trying him in an international
criminal tribunal, while 44% would prefer to try him in a
federal court in New York (PIPA November 1-4). [5]
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