
Security Council has considered terrorism a threat to international peace and security and has sanctioned individuals and groups associated with al-Qaeda. Examples include those aiming to prevent and punish certain terrorist acts-such as hijacking airplanes or hostage taking-and to suppress terrorism financing. However, states have developed, at the multilateral and regional levels, numerous anti-terrorism treaties. Definitions and Incidence of TerrorismĪs discussed in more detail in section 5, there are no generally agreed-upon definitions of terrorism, terrorist, or terrorist act in international law. Finally, we outline the potential status of terrorists under IHL.

We then describe and discuss challenges concerning the classification of armed conflicts involving terrorists under IHL. We first briefly note the definitions of terrorist and terrorism we use in this report.

To foreground the discussions of medical care in IHL and states’ responses to terrorism, this section outlines key concepts in IHL and counterterrorism frameworks.
