Journal of the Charles University Law Faculty
Veronika Bílková | Institute of International Relations, Prague
Idealists or Fanatics? Foreign (Terrorist) Fighters under Current International Law
Jurisprudence 6/2015 Section: Articles Page: 16-23
Keywords: Council of Europe, foreign fighters, terrorism, UN Security Council
Abstract: The paper analyses two new international legal instruments relating to foreign terrorist fighters that are of relevance to the Czech Republic: UN Security Council Resolution 2178 of 2014 and the Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism of 2015. The paper sums up the contents of the two instruments and draws attention to certain of their shortcomings. Those encompass the problematic notion of foreign terrorist fighters, which is quite vague and fails to reflect the usual understanding of foreign fighters; a rather loose causal link between the offences criminalized under the two instruments and the main offence (of terrorism or of the criminal acts of the ISIL); and potential incompatibility with human rights law.
