THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release October 12, 2000
TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:
With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to
ratification, I transmit herewith the International Convention for the
Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly on December 9, 1999, and signed on behalf of the United
States of America on January 10, 2000. The report of the Department of
State with respect to the Convention is also transmitted for the
information of the Senate.
In recent years, the United States has increasingly focused world
attention on the importance of combating terrorist financing as a means
of choking off the resources that fuel international terrorism. While
international terrorists do not generally seek financial gain as an end,
they actively solicit and raise money and other resources to attract and
retain adherents and to support their presence and activities both in
the United States and abroad. The present Convention is aimed at
cutting off the sustenance that these groups need to operate. This
Convention provides, for the first time, an obligation that States
Parties criminalize such conduct and establishes an international legal
framework for cooperation among States Parties directed toward
prevention of such financing and ensuring the prosecution and punishment
of offenders, wherever found.
Article 2 of the Convention states that any person commits an
offense within the meaning of the Convention "if that person by any
means, directly or indirectly, unlawfully and wilfully, provides or
collects funds with the intention that they should be used or in the
knowledge that they are to be used, in full or in part, in order to
carry out" either of two categories of terrorist acts defined in the
Convention. The first category includes any act that constitutes an
offense within the scope of and as defined in one of the
counterterrorism treaties listed in the Annex to the Convention. The
second category encompasses any other act intended to cause death or
serious bodily injury to a civilian, or to any other person not taking
an active part in hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, when the
purpose of the act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a
population, or to compel a government or an international organization
to do or to abstain from doing any act.
The Convention imposes binding legal obligations upon States
Parties either to submit for prosecution or to extradite any person
within their jurisdiction who commits an offense as defined in Article 2
of the Convention, attempts to commit such an act, participates as an
accomplice, organizes or directs others to commit such an offense, or in
any other way contributes to the commission of an offense by a group of
persons acting with a common purpose. A State Party is subject to these
obligations without regard to the place where the alleged act covered by
Article 2 took place.
States Parties to the Convention will also be obligated to provide
one another legal assistance in investigations or criminal or
extradition proceedings brought in respect of the offenses set forth in
Article 2.
Legislation necessary to implement the Convention will be submitted
to the Congress separately.
This Convention is a critical new weapon in the campaign against
the scourge of international terrorism. I hope that all countries will
become Parties to this Convention at the earliest possible time. I
recommend, therefore, that the Senate give early and favorable
consideration to this Convention, subject to the understanding,
declaration and reservation that are described in the accompanying
report of the Department of State.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 12, 2000.
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