Appeal of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation

Unofficial translation 

RESOLUTION
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE FEDERATION
OF THE FEDERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION 

On the Appeal of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly
of the Russian Federation to the Parliaments of Foreign States
and to International Parliamentary Organizations Due to the Need
for Joint Efforts to Combat International Terrorism 

The Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation resolves:

1. To adopt an Appeal of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to the Parliaments of Foreign States and to International Parliamentary Organizations Due to the Need for Joint Efforts to Combat International Terrorism;

2. To forward the Appeal to the President of the Russian Federation, to the Government of the Russian Federation, to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, to the parliaments of foreign States and to international parliamentary organizations.

3. This Resolution shall enter into force on the date of its signature.

Moscow
18 November 2015
No. 428-SF

APPEAL
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE FEDERATION
OF THE FEDERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

To the Parliaments of Foreign States and to International
Parliamentary Organizations Due to the Need for
 Joint Efforts to Combat International Terrorism

The Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation expresses deep concern over the terrorist threats to the security of the Russian Federation and its citizens. Over the recent years, our country has repeatedly suffered the pain and shock of tragedies caused by the actions of terrorists.

The explosion on board the Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula on 31 October 2015 that killed civilians, including women and children, has become yet another in a series of criminal acts of international terrorism. We join the families and friends of the victims in mourning and call for a fair retribution for the heinous crime. No one involved in that terrorist attack must avoid responsibility.

Today, terrorism is unimpededly moving across State borders and spreading throughout the whole world. The most recent examples were terrorist attacks in France on 13 November 2015, and earlier — in Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Kenya. In Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, where violent extremist groups had entrenched themselves, terrorist acts have become almost commonplace. The Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation strongly condemns inhuman acts of international terrorists and extends its condolences to the States whose citizens have fallen victims to these acts.

Mankind is facing a global challenge that no State on the planet can address alone. Nazism, defeated 70 years ago, represented the same global challenge to human civilization. At that time, to fight the common enemy the anti-Hitler coalition of States with different political systems was created. The Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation is convinced that the current global challenge also requires global response in strict compliance with the international law. Unfortunately, we have repeatedly met with double standards and unilateral sanctions that hinder the ability of the international community to counter terrorism.

In order to comprehensively combat terrorism all members of the international community must unite their efforts and create a large coalition of States rejecting violent extremism and prepared to contribute to defeating the global evil. Such coalition will render these endeavours coordinated and systemic straight away in many critical spheres allowing to:

in the political sphere – exclude double standards and the dichotomization of terrorists into good and bad, and demonstrate ability of the international community to overcome the differences in the face of a common threat;

in the legislative sphere – adopt the necessary international, national and regional acts criminalizing terrorism and any assistance for it, harmonize the modalities of interaction between all anti-terrorist entities in order to prosecute and punish terrorists and their accomplices by employing the potential of parliamentary diplomacy to agree upon the relevant decisions;

in the security sphere – coordinate efforts of relevant organizations in order to prevent terrorist acts and detect terrorist networks and channels for terrorist support, reconcile military operations in order to inflict maximum damage on terrorist groups in their precise locations, and establish a single unified list of terrorist organizations as well as a mechanism for its prompt update;

in the financial and economic sphere – identify and shut down direct and potential sources of terrorist financing, including drug trafficking, trade in energy and other resources, as well as channels for supplying weapons to terrorist organizations;

in the diplomatic sphere – seek strict implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions on counter-terrorism by all States, consistently pursue the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, and seek an early finalization of the comprehensive convention on international terrorism;

in the interparliamentary sphere – use the potential of the parliamentary diplomacy in order to actively promote international counter-terrorism agenda and political discussion of counter-terrorism cooperation in the framework of international events;

in the humanitarian sphere – ensure the protection of the world cultural heritage on the basis of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 14 May 1954;

in the information as well as spiritual and religious sphere – strongly condemn all manifestations of terrorism which is based on the misanthropic ideology, exclude any justifications of terrorist methods of achieving any goals whatsoever by engaging religious leaders in this process, discourage the glorification of acts of violence, debunk the ideas of radical protest, and develop understanding of inevitability of punishment for terrorist activities.

The Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation calls upon the parliaments of foreign States and international parliamentary organizations to put aside political differences and take a firm position in favour of establishing broad and effective interparliamentary and interstate cooperation in countering international terrorism. The issues at stake are the future of the human civilization and a fundamental right of every person on our planet – the right to life. It is our common duty is to ensure this right.

The Council of the Federation
of the Federal Assembly
of the Russian Federation