Introduction

On 12 September 2001, brought together in the UN Security Council (UNSC) by the terrorist attacks perpetrated on US soil the day before, the international community declared itself determined to “combat by all means threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts” ¹ and expressed “its readiness to take all necessary steps to respond to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, and to combat all forms of terrorism, in accordance with its responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations”. ² Two months after this declaration, on 12 November 2001, the UN Security Council met again and, in Resolution 1377 (2001), it declared that “acts of international terrorism constitute one of the most serious threats to international peace and security in the twenty-first century” ³ as they represented “a challenge to all States and to all of humanity”. ⁴ Here, the body reaffirmed “its unequivocal condemnation of all acts, methods and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, in all their forms and manifestations, wherever and by whomever committed”. ⁵ It was the beginning of the Security Council’s global fight against international terrorism.