In the 2005 World Summit Declaration, world leaders condemned terrorism in all its forms, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes — the first such high-level consensus. One year later, the unanimous adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy represented a milestone in the multilateral counterterrorism domain that laid the foundations for a comprehensive and integrated response to terrorism at the national, regional and international levels.

Following the adoption of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the United Nations has intensified system-wide efforts to foster multilateral action to prevent and combat terrorism. The Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy also reaffirmed the crucial role of respect for human rights and the rule of law as the fundamental basis of the fight against terrorism and stressed, in particular, the need to promote and protect the rights of victims of terrorism.

In 2008, the United Nations launched the first symposium that brought together victims of acts of terrorism from around the world, providing a platform for their voices to be heard and initiating a dialogue on how best to support their needs. This publication builds upon the themes explored in the symposium, and is intended to aid in the development of effective criminal justice mechanisms to support victims of acts of terrorism at the national level.

The elaboration of this handbook by the Terrorism Prevention Branch and the Justice Section of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime was made possible through the generous support of donor countries, in particular, Colombia, Cyprus and the Netherlands. UNODC is also thankful to the Foundation “El Nogal” for the support given towards the elaboration of this publication. The handbook draws on the national experiences of a broad range of geographically representative criminal justice experts regarding programmes of assistance and support for victims of acts of terrorism. This handbook
is intended to share experiences related to support mechanisms for victims of terrorism, and to give policymakers and criminal justice officials practical insights into challenges faced, and good practices developed, by their counterparts at the national and regional level. Our hope is that this handbook will aid Member States in the development and implementation of programmes of assistance and support for victims of acts of terrorism within their respective criminal justice systems.