The Sectoral Conventions, and What They Define Instead

In one line

The universal counter-terrorism instruments proceed by defining particular acts, aircraft hijacking, sabotage, attacks on protected persons, hostage-taking, nuclear material, maritime navigation, plastic explosives, bombings, financing and nuclear terrorism, and by requiring each party to criminalise the act, establish jurisdiction and either extradite or prosecute.

The instruments

Aviation. The Tokyo Convention of 1963 on offences on board aircraft; the Hague Convention of 1970 on the unlawful seizure of aircraft; the Montreal Convention of 1971 on unlawful acts against the safety of civil aviation, with its Airports Protocol of 1988; and the Beijing Convention and Protocol of 2010 with the Montreal Protocol of 2014.

Protected persons. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents, adopted by the General Assembly on 14 December 1973.

Hostages. The International Convention against the Taking of Hostages, adopted on 17 December 1979.

Nuclear material. The Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, adopted at Vienna on 3 March 1980, with its Amendment of 2005.

Maritime. The Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation and the Protocol on Fixed Platforms, both done at Rome on 10 March 1988, with Protocols of 2005.

Explosives. The Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection, Montreal, 1 March 1991.

Bombings. The International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, adopted on 15 December 1997.

Financing. The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, adopted 9 December 1999, in force 10 April 2002. [The Financing Convention, and Article 2(1)(b)].

Nuclear terrorism. The International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, 2005.

The count of nineteen includes the protocols and amendments, and different sources group them differently, so a candidate should say nineteen universal instruments including protocols rather than quoting a bare number.

The common architecture

Every one of them does the same five things, and knowing the pattern is worth more than knowing the list.

One: define an act, precisely and without using the word terrorism.

Two: require each party to make it an offence under national law, punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account its grave nature.

Three: establish jurisdiction on several bases: territory, flag or registration, nationality of the offender, and, in some, nationality of the victim or the presence of the offender in the territory.

Four: the extradite or prosecute obligation. A party in whose territory the alleged offender is found must, if it does not extradite them, submit the case without exception whatsoever and without undue delay to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution.