Terrorism and Disarmament

The role of the Department for Disarmament Affairs

The Secretary-General, in his address to the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security held in Madrid in March 2005, declared that terrorism is a threat to all States and to all peoples and that the United Nations must be at the forefront in fighting against it. In its Outcome Document, adopted 13 September 2005, the 2005 World Summit condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and acknowledged the important role played by the United Nations in combating it. The World Summit also stressed the vital contribution of regional and bilateral cooperation, particularly at the practical levels of law enforcement cooperation and technical exchange.

The Outcome Document went on to urge the United Nations, to assist States in building national and regional capacity to combat terrorism and invited the Secretary-General to submit proposals to the General Assembly and the Security Council to strengthen the capacity of the United Nations system to assist States in combating terrorism and to enhance the coordination of United Nations activities in this regard.

The basic elements of a comprehensive United Nations counter-terrorism strategy that the Secretary-General first set out in his statement to the Madrid Summit mentioned above were reflected in the Outcome document. These basic elements, also known as the "five D's" are:

• to dissuade disaffected groups from choosing terrorism as a tactic to achieve their goals;
• to deny terrorists the means to carry out their attacks;
• to deter States from supporting terrorists;
• to develop State capacity to prevent terrorism; and
• to defend human rights in the struggle against terrorism.

Two of those elements are directly relevant to the work of DDA, namely, denying terrorists the means to carry out their attacks; and developing States' capacity to prevent terrorism. Both of these elements are directly addressed through the activities of the Department.

DDA provides substantive support to the work of the Committee established pursuant to United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004). In this resolution, the Security Council decided that all States shall refrain from providing any form of support to non-state actors that attempt to develop, acquire, manufacture, possess, transport, transfer or use nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their means of delivery, and required all States to adopt and enforce appropriate effective laws to this effect. The resolution also required them to establish various types of domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of such weapons. In this connection, DDA supports all aspects of the work of the experts serving the 1540 Committee; maintains the Committee's website; and also supports the work of the Committee and its experts in facilitating the provision of technical assistance to Member States, where required, for the effective implementation of UNSC resolution 1540.

DDA also promotes the universalization of a series of international and regional instruments in the area of disarmament and non-proliferation all of which have a direct bearing on many aspects of the terrorist threat. DDA therefore encourages States to implement their obligations under those instruments and assists them in capacity-building across a broad range of issues, including small arms and light weapons, through projects implemented by its three Regional Centres for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.

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