6+Australia

Brent S. 9/16/08 Period 3
 * Terrorism: The Conflict and Australia's Involvement**

__Background__ In recent years, a spike of terrorism has exploded all over the world, specifically in the region of the Middle East. Questions have been raised as to where these terrorist groups have been receiving the funds for their attacks. The problem was that countries were funding certain terrorist cells to do dirty work and smuggle resources. Such nations as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria have been accused of currently funding terrorist groups. State-sponsored terrorism has been an important issue, with several committees and summits occuring for the sole sake of conjuring solutions to squash out terrorism.

__United Nations Involvement__ The world as a whole has taken a keen intrest in terrorism and SST (state-sponsored terrorism) because it involves a direct conflict with peacekeeping efforts and the way countries can function. A constitution of sorts was created in 1999. The UN Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism was signed by several countries and enforces the articles with criminal punishment. A UN Counterterrorism Committee was created to deal with specific cases of SST and deal with punishment for violating the terms of the UNCSFT (UN Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism). Infractions of these rules has resulted in punishment such as a higher prescence of UN officials and increased security.

__Country Policy and Involvement__ Australia has no current affairs with the subject of state sponsored terrorism. However, we have stood by the US and UK governments in the quest to abolish all kinds of terrorist-like affairs. We have signed several conventions and participated in committees to abolish all SST activity around the globe. Australia has been active in the War on Terrorism with troops placed in Iraq. Although we are removing our troops, Australia is still firmly placed behind the war against terror and will continue to pursue the abolishment of all terrorist activity around the world.

__Solutions__ Australia has been discussing the current problem of SST and the possible solutions we can devise for it. We have approved several solutions that Australia believes are excellent in dealing with and solving the problem of state-sponsored terrorism. The first solution is, that countries first need to look at their own issues on SST and analyze what they have done in the past that could be used against them. Australia believes that it is better to look at what your country has done before you go and accuse another country, with no hard evidence against them of sponsoring terrorism. Our second solution, is something we call COPAT, which stands for Commite of Persecution Against Terrorism. The goal of this committee is to bring nations together to discuss punishment solutions for countries accused of state-sponsored terrorism. Working with our beliefs, in order to bring up an accusation, the accuser must have hard evidence to prove that the country being accused has been directly involved with funding terrorism. Australia thinks that if the UN uses these solutions, we can further extend our fight against the problem of SST.

__Bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_terrorism http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/l2971.doc.htm http://untreaty.un.org/english/Terrorism/Conv12.pdf http://www.un.org/sc/ctc/__