General Assembly

Distr. GENERAL  

26 September 1995

ORIGINAL:
FRENCH

Fiftieth session
Agenda item 146


MEASURES TO ELIMINATE INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

Report of the Secretary-General

Addendum


CONTENTS

              Page

III.  REPLIES RECEIVED FROM MEMBER STATES

  ALGERIA ..........................................................2























95-28997 (E)   260995  260995/...
*9528997*
ALGERIA

[Original:  French]

[12 September 1995]

1.    In  adopting, on  9  December  1994, resolution  49/60  approving  the
Declaration on  Measures to  Eliminate International  Terrorism, the  United
Nations  General Assembly entered  a new  phase in its efforts  to deal with
the  issue of international  terrorism.  In  so doing,  the General Assembly
adapted the tactics of the international community to  the demands of a more
systematic and  better organized effort to  combat acts  of terrorism, whose
globalization  poses a  serious threat  to international  peace and security
and runs counter to the principles of the Charter  of the United Nations and
of international  law concerning  friendly relations  and cooperation  among
States.

2.   Algeria  reaffirms its  unconditional  support  for the  Declaration on
Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism.   It associates itself  fully
with the  General Assembly's unequivocal condemnation  of all acts,  methods
and  practices  of  terrorism,  wherever  and  by  whomever  committed.   It
supports the constructive role which the  United Nations and its specialized
agencies could play in the fight against this  scourge, which is the product
of extremism and intolerance. It attaches importance  to the implementation,
at the  national and  international levels,  of the  measures enumerated  in
this Declaration, and hopes that steps  to strengthen the effort  to prevent
and eliminate international terrorism will be pursued with  a view to giving
that  effort  the  quality  and  consistency   of  a  genuine  strategy  for
collective security.   Accordingly, the  Algerian Government, in  compliance
with  the provisions  of resolution  49/60  and  of the  Declaration annexed
thereto,  wishes to  communicate its  views  on  the practical  measures and
provisions which have been implemented as part  of the campaign to eliminate
international terrorism.


              A.  Measures taken in accordance with General Assembly
                  resolution 49/60

3.   Pursuant  to  paragraph  4 of  resolution 49/60,  in which  the General
Assembly   urges  States,   in  accordance   with  the   provisions  of  the
Declaration,  to  take  all  appropriate   measures  at  the   national  and
international levels  to eliminate  terrorism, the  Algerian Government  has
striven to promote and implement, in good faith, all aspects of the  General
Assembly's Declaration.  Specifically, it has taken the following measures:

4.   At the national level,  the Algerian Government  has promulgated a  new
law to strengthen efforts  to combat terrorism.  Accordingly, the Penal Code
and the Code of  Penal Procedure have been  amended to meet the requirements
of public safety in Algeria.

  New  article 87 bis of the Penal Code, which concerns the characterization
of acts of terrorism, defines as terrorist or subversive all acts intended:

 To spread  fear  throughout the  population  and  to  create a  climate  of
insecurity by causing individuals mental anguish  or physical injury, or  by
endangering their lives, freedom, safety or property;

To  impede traffic  or freedom  of movement  on roads  or to  occupy  public
places by mob action;

To  attack symbols  of  the  nation and  of  the Republic  or  to  desecrate
cemeteries;

To interfere with the communications media,  the transport system or  public
and  private  property,  to  take  possession  of  them  or  to  occupy them
unlawfully;

To harm the environment  or to introduce in  the atmosphere, on  land, under

ground or in the  water, including the territorial  waters of the ocean, any
substance  that might  endanger the  health  of  persons or  animals or  the
natural environment;

To  interfere with the actions of public authorities, freedom of religion or
civil  liberties, or with  the operations  of establishments  that serve the
public;

To interfere with  the operations of  public institutions or  to attack  the
lives or property of their agents, or to hinder the enforcement of laws  and
regulations.

  The purpose  of these provisions is  to define  and characterize terrorist
acts in an  appropriate manner in order to  prevent them from being  carried
out, and to stipulate  the penalties and sanctions which those convicted  of
committing such  acts could  expect to  incur.   To this  end, the  Algerian
legislature  has  judged  it  necessary  and  advisable  to  impose  stiffer
penalties,  which  shall  henceforth  correspond  to  the  gravity  of   the
terrorist acts committed.  Heavy deterrent  penalties are envisaged for  any
Algerian  national who  agitates  for or  enrols abroad  in  a  terrorist or
subversive association,  group or  organization, whatever  its structure  or
designation,  even  if  its operations  are  not  directed  against Algeria.
Penalties  are also envisaged  for any  person involved  in the manufacture,
purchase, sale  and importation of weapons  and explosives  intended for use
in terrorist acts.

  In  addition,   other  measures  and   additional  procedures  have   been
promulgated to  ensure the  application of  this anti-terrorist  legislation
which  reflects  the   determination  of   the  Algerian  State  to   combat
international terrorism effectively and by lawful and legitimate means.

5.   At  the bilateral  level, the  Algerian Government  has made  sustained
efforts  to  coordinate  policies and  strategies to  combat  terrorism, for
example by  strengthening judicial cooperation,  exchanging information, and
circulating  details of persons  who have  committed terrorist  acts so that
they might  be arrested, handed  over or extradited.   In  this context, the
Algerian Government is making active and  untiring efforts to harmonize  its
national legislative  provisions and  conclude agreements  on measures  that
need  to be taken in order to bring to justice or extradite the perpetrators
of  and accomplices to terrorist  acts, as well  as agreements on preventive
measures.

6.  At the  international level, the Algerian State acceded to the following
conventions in 1995:

  (a)The Convention  on Offences and Certain  Other Acts  Committed on Board
Aircraft, signed at Tokyo on 14 September 1963;

  (b)The Convention  for the Suppression  of Unlawful  Seizure of  Aircraft,
signed at The Hague on 16 December 1970;

  (c)The Convention for the Suppression of  Unlawful Acts against the Safety
of Civil Aviation, signed at Montreal on 23 September 1971;

  (d)The Protocol  for  the Suppression  of  Unlawful  Acts of  Violence  at
Airports Serving  International Civil  Aviation, complementary  to the  1971
Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful  Acts against the Safety of Civil
Aviation, signed at Montreal on 24 February 1988.

7.   In accordance with  paragraph 10 (b) of the  Declaration on Measures to
Eliminate International Terrorism, the Algerian  Government has communicated
information on national  laws and regulations  regarding the  prevention and
suppression  of  terrorism  in  all  its  forms  and  manifestations;   this
information  will  help the  Secretary-General to  prepare  a compendium  of
national laws  1/ which will provide  useful material  for the establishment
of an effective juridical mechanism  for preventing and  combating terrorist

acts.   At  the  present  time, such  acts have  a multifaceted  quality not
covered by international penal law in the context of a global  vision of the
fight against all terrorist acts regardless  of their character, methods and
motivation.

8.  The Algerian Government subscribes to the  idea of a draft international
convention on  the  prevention  and  elimination of  terrorism  under  which
States parties would  undertake to refrain from  any acts likely  to promote
terrorist activities against other States and  to prevent the commission  of
such acts. This convention would strengthen the obligation of all States  to
refrain from organizing, assisting, inciting, encouraging or tolerating,  in
their  territories,  activities  designed  to  perpetrate  such  acts,  with
operational measures  of a  legal and  practical nature.  The second  aim of
such  an international  legal instrument  would  be to  enhance  cooperation
among  States, exchange  and  process relevant  information,  and  establish
files  for the  identification of  persons  involved  in terrorist  acts and
illicit trafficking in arms and official documents.

9.   The Government  of Algeria  continues to  believe that  the problem  of
defining  terrorism  might  be  appropriately  resolved  by  agreeing  to  a
detailed  definition of  terrorist  acts  characterized  in terms  of  their
criminal  nature  and impact  rather  than  focusing  on  the phenomenon  of
terrorism.   Such  an  approach  would have  the advantage  of  shifting the
emphasis  from the  conceptual aspects  of  terrorism  to its  practical and
material manifestations, on which a consensus could be reached. 2/

  B.  Ways to consider the question within the Sixth Committee

10.  In the view  of Algeria, the most effective  way to address  the issue,
on the basis of  the progress achieved during  the two previous  sessions of
the General Assembly, would be:

  (a)  To  set up a working group under the Sixth Committee  at the fiftieth
session of  the General  Assembly to  be given  the task of  considering the
report  of the Secretary-General  and evaluating  the implementation  of the
Declaration on  Measures to Eliminate International  Terrorism.   At the end
of  its  deliberations,  the  working  group  could  also  identify  aspects
relating  to  the  advisability  and  means  of  drafting  an  international
convention for the prevention and elimination of acts of terrorism;

  (b)  To adopt a resolution or decision whereby the General Assembly  would
take note of the progress achieved in the implementation  of the Declaration
and reaffirm its principles and objectives.


Notes

  1/  The  text of the Ordinance  modifying and supplementing Ordinance  No.
66-156  dated  8  June 1966  containing  the  Penal Code  is  available  for
consultation in the Codification Division of the Office of Legal Affairs.

  2/  See document A/49/257, reply from Algeria.


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