The United Nations (UN) has no internationally-agreed definition of terrorism.The definitional impasse has prevented the adoption of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.Even in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 the UN failed to adopt the Convention, and the deadlock continues to this day. The prime reason is the standoff with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).The Arab Terrorism Convention and the Terrorism Convention of the Organization of the Islamic Conference defines terrorism to exclude armed struggle for liberation and self-determination.This increased its complexity and vagueness.The aim of this paper is to examine the definitional aspect of terrorism and the challenges faced in adopting a single universally accepted definition by the international community.The methodology adopted in this paper is purely a library based research focusing mainly on primary and secondary sources. The paper concludes that nations or states have to come to agreement on a definition of the term “terrorism”, for without a consensus of what constitute terrorism, nations or states could not unite against it.A general definition of terrorism is necessary in order for the international community to fight against terrorism in a precise way.

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在国际法中界定恐怖主义的探索：新兴共识

联合国（UN）对恐怖主义没有国际认可的定义，僵化的僵局阻止了《国际恐怖主义综合公约》的通过，即使在9/11之后不久，联合国也未能通过该公约，陷入僵局持续到今天。主要原因是与伊斯兰会议组织（OIC）的僵持。《阿拉伯恐怖主义公约》和《伊斯兰会议组织的恐怖主义公约》将恐怖主义定义为排除为争取解放和自决而进行的武装斗争，这增加了其复杂性和本文的目的是研究恐怖主义的定义方面以及国际社会采用一个普遍接受的定义所面临的挑战。本文采用的方法纯粹是基于图书馆的研究，主要侧重于主要和次要资源。本文的结论是，国家或州必须就“恐怖主义”一词的定义达成共识，因为如果没有就恐怖主义的构成达成共识，那么国家或州就无法团结一致。恐怖主义的一般定义对于国际社会以精确的方式打击恐怖主义。