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U.N. Releases Guidance to Address Terrorist Use of UAS

In late December 2023, the United Nations Security Council Committee released a set of non-binding guiding principles to assist Member States in countering terrorist use of UAS, otherwise known as unmanned aircraft systems or drones. Per the letter from the Chair of the committee, the guiding principles will be known and referred to as the “Abu Dhabi Guiding Principles.”

The guiding principles recognize that emerging technologies like drones will benefit society in multiple domains, including public health, border control, law enforcement, transportation, humanitarian assistance, and communications systems. Terrorist organizations will use the same technologies that enable those missions to facilitate a wide range of terrorist activities.

Each of the four (4) guiding principles in the document contains multiple points for Member States to consider as they develop and evolve their airspace awareness and protection (counter-UAS) program to address UAS threats. Examples include integrating UAS threats into national counter-terrorism strategies, designating a national authority to lead the national coordination of counter-UAS as well as serve as a contact point for foreign partners and adopting a risk-based approach to develop tailored solutions to assess, address, and respond to specific threat scenarios posed by the terrorist UAS threat.

Publication Date– December 2023

The Abu Dhabi Guiding Principles contains the following major sections:

Guiding principles for Member States on countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes
Threats posed by the use of unmanned aircraft systems for terrorist purposes
Non-binding guiding principle 1
Non-binding guiding principle 2
Non-binding guiding principle 3
Non-binding guiding principle 4

A link to the Abu Dhabi Guiding Principles is included at the bottom of this page.