The Hindu : New Delhi News : Shekhawat for strong international law on terrorism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 17, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Shekhawat for strong international law on terrorism

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 16. The Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, today cautioned against adopting any selective definition of terrorism as all its forms, including proxy war, should be tackled.

Addressing the special plenary session of the second International Conference on International Law, Mr. Shekhawat said there was an urgent need to develop a strong international law that comprehensively addressed terrorism. "We need to combat terrorism that poses threat to the civilian population and elected governments," he said.

Globalisation, the Vice-President said, had contributed to growth in international trade and economy but had failed to reduce poverty. While the total world income actually increased by an average of 2.5 per cent annually during the last decade of the 20th century, the actual number of people living in poverty increased by almost 100 million.

Unequal rules

Mr. Shekhawat said the developing nations could not sustain their levels of prosperity without making the developing countries their partners in collective progress.

However, this partnership could not be defined by the old unequal rules of the game. It was, therefore, important that development of international law on trade and investments promoted such a relationship between the developed and the developing nations

It was a matter for serious introspection whether the rights guaranteed under the law to a citizen had any meaning for the poor and the deprived.

The first and foremost responsibility of the state was to free the poor from the curse of poverty and empower them with access to basic healthcare, education and shelter. "So long as we do not achieve this objective, we cannot build a sustainable international order of peace, harmony and progress," he said.

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