'Global community must unitedly fight terror'

India on Thursday asked the international community to unitedly fight terrorism asserting that a strong response requires broad-based international cooperation, reducing space available to terrorists and increasing capability of states to address the threat.

"As a violent expression of extremism, terrorism represents a negation of every liberal value that sustains the concept of human rights," delegate Rahul Gandhi told a United Nations committee.

Calling on the international community to enhance cooperation to prevent and combat terrorism, Rahul expressed the hope that the negotiations on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism initiated by India would be brought to an early conclusion.

Commending the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, he expressed confidence that it would give an impetus to the international community to unite against the scourge.

Rahul reminded the committee that the Millennium Development Goals aimed at reducing drastically or eliminating several social and economic ills by 2015 are rooted in the Vienna Declaration.

The existence of extreme poverty inhibits full and effective enjoyment of human rights and its immediate alleviation and eventual elimination must remain a high priority for international community, he said.

Stressing the need for turning the right to development into reality, he asked the newly established Human Rights Council to play a decisive role in evolving a legally binding instrument for the purpose.

In this context, Rahul pointed out that the declaration had reaffirmed the right to development as a "universal and inalienable right" and an "integral part of human rights."

The Vienna Declaration, he said, also stresses the important role of international cooperation in the field of human rights to fully achieve the purposes of the United Nations.

Referring to Article 22 of the Universal Declaration, which stresses the need for "national effort and international cooperation" so that everyone can enjoy economic, social and cultural rights, Rahul stressed the importance of national capacity-building in the area of human rights.