Ongoing projects: Terrorism prevention

GLO/R35 - "Strengthening the Legal Regime against Terrorism"

A comprehensive global legal regime against terrorism is a key component of an effective global counter-terrorism strategy. The universal legal instruments against terrorism (13 Conventions and Protocols) establish that global legal regime and provide the framework for international cooperation in countering terrorism within the ambit of the rule of law and international human rights principles. The full ratification of these instruments and implementation of their provisions is a crucial requirement for making the legal regime effective. Notwithstanding significant progress in this regard, their universal ratification remains a distant goal and, even when this is reached, much work will still be required to achieve their effective practical application. The Terrorism Prevention Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is mandated to provide legal and related assistance to requesting countries to ratify and implement the universal legal instruments against terrorism. The Global Project on Strengthening the Legal Regime against Terrorism provides the overall framework for delivering such assistance to countries. It functions as an on-going 'rolling' project, with biennial budgets.
The overall project objective is to support Member States in achieving a functional universal legal regime against terrorism in accordance with the principles of the rule of law, especially by facilitating the ratification and implementation of the universal legal instruments against terrorism.


The immediate four objectives of the project are:

  1. to provide ongoing and sustainable support to requesting countries to achieve full and expeditious ratification of the universal legal instruments against terrorism;
  2. to strengthen national expertise and capacity of requesting Governments to develop and apply the domestic legislation required for the effective implementation of the universal legal instruments against terrorism;
  3. to strengthen international cooperation in criminal matters pertaining to terrorism; and
  4. to strengthen collaboration on legal aspects of counter-terrorism between UNODC/TPB and sub-regional, regional and international organizations.