At a session held on 12 October, India put forward the position that acts of terrorism meeting an established severity threshold should be formally categorised within the broader legal framework governing crimes against humanity, according to a post published by India's Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
Speaking on behalf of India's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, R Mythili — who holds the role of Counsellor and Legal Adviser within that mission — addressed the Sixth Committee during its 81st General Assembly session. The agenda item centred on a proposed plenipotentiary conference examining international frameworks for the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity.
At the UN negotiations over a proposed convention targeting crimes against humanity, the position put forward by India sought to bring terrorist acts meeting that legal threshold within the treaty's scope of prevention and punishment.
At the session, India also put forward the view that individual states bear the foremost duty to address crimes against humanity through their own legal and judicial systems — covering prevention, investigation, and prosecution alike. India pressed for territorial and national jurisdictions to take precedence, grounded in respect for sovereign authority and the principle that outside parties ought not to interfere in a country's domestic affairs, according to the position as stated at the session.
The document further put forward that any forthcoming treaty addressing crimes against humanity should build upon — rather than replicate — the frameworks already in place under international law, while taking a clear stand against lifting provisions wholesale from those existing instruments into a new legal text.
At the same session, India put forward a call for the development of an international framework on crimes against humanity to rest on widely accepted principles of international law, bolstered national capacities, and negotiation processes that are both transparent and open to all parties.
At the UNGA Sixth Committee, the position put forward by India centred on three interlocking conditions for any future international convention: that it honour the boundaries of national jurisdiction, that it avoid overlapping with treaty frameworks already in place, and that negotiations over crimes against humanity proceed through open and broadly participatory processes.
At the United Nations, the stance taken by India on counter-terrorism matters aligns with a broader national policy that treats such threats as warranting no tolerance or compromise. Tighter laws, restructured institutions, and the pooling of intelligence data have together reshaped how national and regional agencies work alongside one another in addressing terrorism.
Efforts to counter cross-border militant activity, break apart networks that fund armed groups, and bring law enforcement and security agencies up to modern standards have together contributed to a stronger national security framework, according to India's stated position. Investments in digital defence infrastructure have broadened the tools and protocols available to counter an evolving landscape of online vulnerabilities.
Declines in terror-related incidents, lower loss of life among both civilians and security personnel, and broader gains across public safety, development, and national resilience have been cited as measurable progress tied to those ongoing efforts.
