Background to the League > League from year to year > 1936

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The contracting parties are to take on their territories
appropriate measures to prevent activities contrary to the
purposes of the Convention.
The discussion of the draft at the Assembly was directed
partly to the question whether the subject was ripe for the
conclusion of an international agreement, but mainly to the
scope of the proposed Convention.
Although some Governments considered that the draft did
not go far enough, the more general criticism was that it was
too comprehensive and dealt with acts which were outside
the proper scope of a convention on terrorism, and that its
effect upon the right of granting asylum for political offences
should be made clearer. The view was also expressed that
more attention should be paid in the draft to the question
of preventing Governments from exploiting terrorist activities
against other States.
The second draft embodies a scheme for the creation of
an international criminal court to which the contracting
parties would be able to send for trial persons accused of
terrorist offences whom they preferred not to extradite or
punish themselves, but whom they would otherwise be under
the obligation either to extradite or to punish. The
communications received from the Governments and the
discussion at the Assembly showed that the creation of such
an institution, which was originally proposed by the French
Government in a paper which it circulated to the Council
after the Marseilles outrage, is supported by a number of
Governments in the belief that trial before the proposed court
would be a valuable alternative to local punishment or to
extradition of terrorist offenders. On the other hand, at least
an equal number of Governments have raised objections of
principle to the creation of the court or are not satisfied
as to its practical utility. This difference of opinion is the
reason why the Committee for the International Repression
of Terrorism embodied the provisions for the creation of the
court in a separate Convention. Under the Committee’s
proposal, States could become parties to the Terrorism
Convention without accepting any obligations in regard to
the court, although participation in the Convention concerning