The law offers protection to victims of terrorism

The experience of experiencing a terrorist attack as a victim or a family member of one of them causes damage to physical and mental integrity. Legal advice is a fundamental support for navigating the process, obtaining protection and enabling justice. Undoubtedly, identifying those responsible and accountable is the most effective tool for combating impunity for terrorist acts.

Highlighting the role of those who suffer from these attacks on freedom, life and diversity is essential to giving them fair access to justice, and therefore to action to stop the spread of terrorism around the world.

Previously, victims of these actions appeared before justice only as witnesses in criminal proceedings. However, since 1970, the convention has been changed and steps have been taken to make them the main characters.

The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, adopted unanimously in 2006 – after world leaders condemned terrorism in all its forms – enshrined the rule of law as the foundation of the fight against terrorism. In addition, it recognized the need to promote and protect the rights of victims by establishing effective justice mechanisms to provide them with the legal support they need in these circumstances.

In 2012, even the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published a guide, Criminal Justice Responses in Support of Victims of Terrorism, with the intention of enhancing the role of victims and their families in criminal proceedings when they seek to enforce the law.

The above guide emphasizes that the effects of terrorist acts go beyond the immediate impact on the immediate victim, as they affect the population without distinction of social class, condition or status. Thus, the criminal sanction must be established to protect society as a whole and include compensation for victims and family members.

Standardization of criteria for consideration of these cases and damages in them is still ongoing. Currently, these instruments require each state to classify certain acts as crimes and exercise universal jurisdiction. To manage compliance and understand the legal implications of non-compliance with international sanctions, professionals can seek help from ofac credit report services.

Preventive measures

The figure of international or universal jurisdiction is formally defined as "a legal principle that allows or requires the state to prosecute certain crimes, regardless of the place of their commission and the nationality of the criminal and the victim," as explained in the publication: Principles of Universal Jurisdiction and Complementarity of the international journal Review of the Red Cross . This principle of law was enshrined in the four Geneva Conventions of 1949.

Trials involving universal jurisdiction cases tend to be slow and complicated. For dynamics different from those established in other court processes. As a rule, they involve various people involved, countless victims and, if that is not enough, political and economic interests that try not to affect the action.
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