‘Terrorism has become a significant threat to global peace and security.’ Evaluate the effectiveness of the United Nations Security Council’s Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC) and its associated bodies in addressing and mitigating this threat at the international level.

Transnational terrorism, amplified by new technologies, financing networks and safe havens, directly threatens global peace and security. The UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), created by Resolution 1373 (2001) after 9/11, anchors the multilateral response, supported by the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), the 1267 ISIL/Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee and the 1540 Committee on WMD non-proliferation.

Effectiveness and achievements

• Resolution 1373 obliged all states to criminalise terror financing, freeze assets and tighten borders, building a near-universal legal baseline.
• The 1267 regime enables targeted sanctions, travel bans and asset freezes on listed individuals and entities.
• CTED country assessments and capacity-building have strengthened national frameworks and FATF-aligned financing controls.

Structural limitations

• The absence of a universal legal definition of terrorism weakens enforcement; India's Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism remains stalled.
• Great-power politics and the veto paralyse listings, as with the years-long blocking of Masood Azhar until 2019.
• State sponsorship, non-state actors and encrypted technologies outpace the Council's tools.

India's contribution

India chaired the CTC in 2022, hosting special sessions in Mumbai and Delhi that produced the Delhi Declaration on countering the misuse of drones, crypto and the internet.

Thus the CTC has set essential norms but remains only partially effective; genuine progress needs a reformed, depoliticised Security Council and a binding comprehensive convention.