On May 19, 2005, the Working Group on Terrorism met for its first working session at the Congresso Nacional do Brasil in the city of Brasilia, under the auspices of the Fourth Plenary Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas (FIPA), with twenty-seven deputies and senators from twelve member countries of the Forum in attendance.

Dr. MAURO MIEDICO, an official with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), gave a presentation on the role of parliaments in the war on terrorism in which he emphasized following:

• The 12 international instruments dealing with terrorism, including their contents;
• The main problems encountered with regard to legislation governing terrorism: the difficulties in drafting a statutory definition of “acts of terrorism” under each country’s laws; the relatively small number of countries that have ratified international conventions; the frequent failure to pass proposed legislation; limited success in harmonizing anti-terrorism laws; and the slow pace of efforts to incorporate international conventions into domestic legislation.

Report - PDF

We invite you to join other parliamentarians of the Americas in discussing the question of Terrorism through this online discussion space. If you are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity for inter-parliamentary dialogue please register with the FIPA Technical Secretariat by filling out this form.

For more information about this and other Work Spaces please contact us at info-fipa@e-fipa.org.

The Special Group on terrorism that worked during the Third Plenary Meeting of FIPA met at the Chilean National Congress in the City of Valparaiso on April 1 and 2, 2004.

Parliamentarians from Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Suriname and Venezuela attended to the working sessions.

Report - PDF

The Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas held the first meeting of the Special Group on Terrorism on May 21, 2003. Following up on decisions made during the last Plenary Meeting, parliamentarians from FIPA member countries met in Mexico City to discuss the issue of terrorism.

Report - PDF