Направления работы и практика взаимодействия Управления ООН по борьбе с терроризмом и Российской Федерации в области поддержки жертв терроризма

This thesis raises the topic of interaction between states and international organizations in supporting victims of terrorism. The work includes an analysis of what the UN Office of Counter Terrorism is doing to support the victims of terrorism, on the other side it analyzes what is being done within the state, namely, in Russia. It analyzes and provides an understanding of what is implemented locally, in specific cases, to support victims of terrorism. After the author presents results and findings.
This topic has a high significance, because international terrorism is what the international community has been paying attention to for many years. Earlier the solution of the problems of international terrorism was not so active, but terroristic attacks on New York and Washington on September 11th, 2001 generated global attention to respond to international terrorism. 9/11 was perceived as a global threat, not an individual matter for countries. The world experienced large-scale attacks from international and domestic terrorism and a large number of victims: The USA – September 11, 2001 (attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killed 2,749 and 184 people), Spain – March 2004 (explosions in the commuter trains of Madrid, killed 191, injured circa 1,900). Great Britain – in July 2005 (explosions in London, 56 dead and over 800 injured). A lot of terrorist attacks were in Afghanistan, Columbia, Iran, Kenya, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, Tanzania, Israel and in other countries. Russia faced the seizures of a school in Beslan, the Nord-Ost building in the capital, explosions of houses in Moscow, Buinaksk and Volgodonsk and other terrorist crimes. The world encountered the threat of international terrorism in the past years and, numerous efforts have been made to prevent and counter this problem. So, the topics about terrorism and its consequences do not stop being significant, that is why this work has relevance.

1.1 Rationale of choice
Most of the works devoted to the international problem of terrorism are related to the works of either the sociological or the criminal field. The main aspects of this topic are mainly reduced to three ideas: the policy of combating and preventing terrorist attacks in states, international cooperation in this area, the experience of individual countries in the policy of countering terrorism. The focus on support victims of terrorism, the formation of institutions, the order of compensations and international cooperation in this area are sparingly reflected in scientific works.
The rights of victims of crime, namely of terrorism, were not internationally adopted till 1985, the year of adoption by the General Assembly the United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power. The way to recognition and respect victims of terrorism, response to their needs and creation support tools took a long time in the history and currently this issue is developing.
One of the reasons to create this research is the fact that UN measures of recent years reflect the active position in the field of human rights observance (UN resolutions 60/288, 72/165, 73/305 and reports of the Secretary-General). Before the agenda about problems of victims in 2006-2008, the issue of assistance to victims was not properly discussed. There was deficient policy towards people who have been attacked and injured in terroristic attack and who did not get the necessary support because of the lack of legislation. Previously, the policy of supporting victims of terrorism was not actively covered, but recently active discussion has begun.
There is a broad set of needs which are common to victims of all types of crime. But it can be confidently declared that victims of terrorism can have some special additional needs. Lots of world experts consolidated key concepts of support people suffered from terroristic attacks such as respect and recognition, compensation, access to justice, commemoration, information provision, as victims’ primary needs. It should be highlighted that victims of terrorism are not only persons who suffered directly, but there are also indirect victims such as eyewitnesses of the crime, victim’s relatives, and friends, so it affects societies generally. That is why the victims’ needs should not be separated, they can be more intertwined to make lives of suffered people better.
The relevance of the topic is caused by the fact that currently there are obstacles to the restoration of violated rights of victims of terrorist acts. The author scrutinized Russian laws, analyzed media materials about complaints from the side of victims, interviewed people and noticed cases about appeals and requests for help and support from victims of terrorism in Russia.
There are some problems of violation of victim’s rights, for instance, only ten years later the victims of the terrorist attack in the theatre on the Dubrovka in Moscow in 2002 received some compensations, namely, in 2012. It was the decision of the European Court of Human Rights which came into force on the pay of 1.24 million euros from Russia in favor of the victims of the terrorist attack on Dubrovka. Currently, there are still petitions from victims and victim associations to the Russian government about their status and the lack of legal provisions for them. This material is provided in the thesis.
The major goal of this thesis is to study practices concerning victims of terrorism implemented by UNOCT and to determine how much practice in Russia correlates with it; efficiency of UNOCT recommendations for member states, including Russian Federation. This thesis tries to research the system of assisting victims of terrorism recently implemented by UN endeavors to emphasize particularities of implementation of support measures in different countries and to make outputs from the examined practices.

Novelty of the thesis:
• The study of Russian government and the UNOCT interrelation can expand both studies on international relations and counter terrorism studies.
• Using the resilience concept makes this study unique and unconventional especially for Russian practices, cause this concept is rare enough there.
• The topic is high relevant for the global civil society.
• The work is directed on the solutions of problems of global society (contributes to the sustainable development Goal №16 Goal “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions”).

1.2 Research Objectives
Within the framework of the thesis work, an attempt was made to study the ongoing practices of the UN, namely the UNOCT and the Russian Federation regarding victims of terrorism, the extent of the international community involvement to this issue, international cooperation within the framework of the agenda of solidarity and recognition the rights of victims of terrorism, what together will contribute to the support mechanism for affected people by terrorist acts both outside and inside their state.
The empirical basis of the thesis was formed by UN resolutions and reports, federal laws of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation, regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation, European Convention on Human Rights, documents Council of Europe. To make an efficient study, author uses different methods of research – content analysis, comparative analysis and interview method.
The broad objective of the research is to contribute to the knowledge about the policy of support of victims of terrorism. The specific empirical research objective is to study deeper the practice of organizations of victims of terrorism from some countries, their international cooperation and influence on the ongoing UN policy in the field of combating terrorism. Important accent is given on to the comprehension of the implementation of UN resolutions in Russian Federation and some Member States. The theoretical objective is to study the types of practices by the UNOCT and the Russian Federation. Additionally, author refers to good practices in victims’ support of other Member States, such as France and Spain, cause during the study author found out that especially practices of these countries are often mentioned in reports of European practices and on the UN website, Victim Support Portal. As the awareness of the problem, the thesis includes part about the initiative of UNs and member states to response on victims of terrorism needs, highlighting the important role civil society. Variety of organizations of victims of terrorism, their unities and discussion of the problems (for instance, Symposium of victims of terrorism in 2008 by UNs) reflect striving to develop the branch of victim support. It means that this international dialogue would be able to facilitate the institutional framework for collaborative activities in the field of support. Author emphasizes the need for mutual implementation of effective methods to support the protection of social guarantees what has high relevance for the global civil society.
All the foregoing determines the relevance of thesis, which allows to contribute to not only the mechanism of support but raise awareness of the existing problem. As an extra motivation of the thesis is the 16th UN Sustainable Development Goal “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions” – the task 16.A “Strengthen relevant national institutions, including through international cooperation, for building capacity at all levels, in particular in developing countries, to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime”. Cause the dilemma of the issue discussed in the thesis is directed on the solutions of problems of global society.
Though the author makes an accent that nowadays the provisions of international legislation concerning counter-terrorism policy do not reflect provisions about status of victim of terrorism properly but there is international recognition and current enhancement of legislation concerning this status. The implementation of international law nationally is often the problem. Regulation of this issue of protection in international documents is dedicated to the institution of protection of victims of crimes. But analyzing the Russian legislation author reveals that counter-terrorism laws in Russia do not contain full provisions for compensation after terrorist attack and there is no well-elaborated mechanism of compensation for the rights of victims of terrorist attacks due to lack of relevant legislation. Interviews with victims of terrorism, co-founders of associations of victims in Russia, media coverage of the issue and reviews the work of victims’ unities in Russia confirm this finding.
The UN directives that have been created over the past years reflect an interest to victims of terrorist attacks, signalize a willingness to improve policies towards people and urge member states to do the same. Resolutions of the General Assemble contain recommendations and asks to integrate states in this common and important action.
The main research question is:
How does Russian practices towards victims of terrorism correlate with UNOCT practices?
The main sub-questions are:
• What exactly do UNOCT and Russia for support victims and what is Russian government and the UNOCT interrelation?
• Does facilitate partnership between governments and civil society organizations in protection of rights of victims of terrorism and what does it mean for international relations?
• Does the cooperation of such organizations can define inter-agency mechanisms on victims of terrorism?

The obtained results of the research carried out by the author can allow see several theoretical and practical problems and contribute to complement and deepen the existing scientific knowledge about ways to support victims of terrorism at the international level.
1.3 Literature Overview
One of the most significant literature resources for this thesis became the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) research paper “Strengthening the Role of Victims and Incorporating Victims in Efforts to Counter Violent Extremism and Terrorism” by Dr. Alex P. Schmid. This research paper contributes better comprehension of the topic relevance and gives a motivation make a research more meticulously. Dr. Schmid explores the role of victims of terrorism and studies different definitions ‘victim’ and provides various support initiatives over the past two decades. Besides, it is stated that support initiatives have been weak in many cases. According to the paper, victims of terrorism are often among the most appropriate actors to counter extremism, and their role in this regard is also being analyzed. In the document the author demonstrates that the significance of victims is being realized now but concludes that there is still much to be done. Finalizing the work, Schmid provides several comprehensive recommendations that can improve the situation of victims and strengthen their role in countering terrorism and extremism. He supposes that the set of recommendations can became a subject for a discussion among officials, representatives of victims’ associations, the judiciary, the media, academics working in this area and, of course, former victims and their relatives. (Schmid, 2012)
Concept of resilience, that is contained in the theoretical part of this thesis, is mentioned in the paper of Schmid too. There is a part “Strengthening victims’ roles in efforts to enhance public resilience” which emphasizes the meaning of victims’ views. “…those who have already been victimised are generally highly motivated and able to raise their voices and organise non‐violent resistance in society against those advocating, practicing or supporting in one way or another, political violence. Courageous and capable victims daring to stand up to the terrorists should be supported and protected in their efforts. They should be given a chance to play a leading role in mobilising social resistance to terrorism”. Provided statements are about resilience of people and its contribution to counter violence.
Furthermore, Schmid’s research is directed on subsequent future works about the victims of terrorism, by this way he draws attention to the problem of victims’ support and promotes the solution of the victims’ issue. This source became a benchmark for ideas and findings provided in the thesis.
Since there are not so many analyses focused on terrorism victims, such volume and detailed sources as “The Victims of Terrorism, Assessment of their Influence and Growing Role in Policy, Legislation, and the Private Sector” by Bruce Hoffman and Anna-Britt Kasupski should be one of the primary resources for the thesis. The report identifies the groups formed in the aftermath of terrorist attacks and compares them to groups formed in response to other terrorist attacks. This paper examines the terrorism impact on actual victims and their families. There is considered that victims are whether the survivors themselves or family members, friends, or colleagues directly affected by terroristic act.
The research attempts to understand better how government and society can cope with aftermath of terrorist attack. The report contains an accent on the organizations of victims and their needs, their lobbying efforts and pursuit of civil justice remedies.
This paper is of interest to author of the thesis because it sheds on how state and society cope with consequences of terrorist attack in different countries. It provides the new role that victims play in this process. Extremely efficient for research were chapters about the level of impact of Beslan Mothers’ Committee and their motivational force to make changes to recognition the problem of victims not only on governmental level but on international. According to the report, “Mothers of Beslan” is the most comparable with the 9/11 Jersey Girls, who played a major role in the 9/11 Commission foundation. Additionally, the report reflects Nord Ost case about inadequacy of payments for the damage, problems with legislation and the holding responsibility of Russian government.
For the thesis author needed a comprehensive and full review of knowledge and current discussions about terrorism and the fight against terrorism. Reason for this was a striving to know more about terrorism studies and discussions and debates within it. Another one reason was to better understand more and less spread topics of discussions. “Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism” by Andrew Silke became the most suitable resource to answer all these research inquiries. This work allowed know more about terrorism and counterterrorism studies – there is provided over fifty concise chapters by specialists in the field of terrorism and counter terrorism studies. Central themes of the paper are history of terrorism, its characteristics, strategies and the main topics related to counter terrorism. The work contains policies and trends, effectiveness of different approaches. Sections also conclude a series of case studies on major counter-terrorism campaigns which helps to see more illustrative information.
There were provided articles of scholars which contributed some benchmarks to the thesis in the topic of support of victims of terrorism and international dialogue in this theme. Namely among them are part about number of victims in Spain and terrorist group responsible, article “Ethics and human rights in counterterrorism” by Harris and Monaghan, articles about cases of counter-terrorism measures in France (by Foley), Spain (by Alonso) and Russia (by Moore). These data extended the thesis.
Analysis of the paper urged author of the thesis not only to pay attention to practices of supporting victims in Member States of UN, namely, France and Spain but to compare them with Russian practices and make appropriate outcomes after. An accent on different countries was not presented as a key in the thesis, but efficient to examine topic of international counter terrorism measures and international cooperation. Using the material of “Routledge Handbook of Terrorism and Counterterrorism”, raised additional ideas of thesis fulfillment and enrichment.