A Swiss-led, five-nation panel proposed Thursday that the United Nations assert itself as leader of a global fight against terrorism and establish a new agency or program to coordinate that effort.U.N. ambassadors from Costa Rica, Japan, Slovakia, Switzerland and Turkey suggested that the U.N. General Assembly create an agency for counterterrorism along the lines of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. It also recommended that the U.N. assist counterterrorism officials from individual nations in promoting "a human rights-based approach to counterterrorism" that disdains torture and preserves prisoners' rights.
The panel, launched by the Swiss U.N. mission in November, is an attempt to involve more of the General Assembly's 192 member nations in fighting terrorism. It also seeks to shift some of the emphasis away from military or police work and onto grappling with interrelated social, economic and health factors.
Its proponents say the panel's conclusions, reached after holding five workshops on three continents, is a response to the U.S.-led war on terror and the counterterrorism work of the powerful U.N. Security Council. "It's an attempt maybe to shift or, should I say, to rebalance the focus away from the war on terror to a more comprehensive way in dealing with terrorism," Swiss Ambassador Peter Maurer told The Associated Press.
Another panel member, Costa Rican Ambassador Jorge Urbina, also serves on the 15-nation Security Council. "There is a need to deepen interagency cooperation and cooperation, both at the national and international level, and this should not be limited to traditional counterterrorism actors, but also include human rights, development, health and social services," he said. "We continue to advocate for the creation of a body that unites all current U.N. counterrorism efforts under one roof, and gives it a clear mandate and direction."
In March, President Bush said the global war's main challenges included securing Iraq, fighting al-Qaida, combating Iran's "destructive influence," and ending "the flow of suicide bombers through Syria." But the panel pointed toward an alternative strategy, an approach based on a belief that the U.N. also must provide a framework all nations can participate in. "The problem is that it is a one-dimensional view, suggesting that with military deployment and military means you can cope with the phenomenon of terrorism," Maurer said.