"[1] However, the resolution failed to define 'terrorism', and the working group initially only added Al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime of Afghanistan on the sanctions list.

This also entailed the possibility that authoritarian regimes could label even non-violent activities as terrorist acts, thus infringing upon basic human rights.

UN Security Council Resolution 1566 picked up loose ends from resolution 1373 by actually spelling out what the Security Council sees as terrorism: criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.Although this definition has operative effect for the purposes of Security Council action, it does not represent a definition of "terrorism" which binds all states in international law.

Negotiations towards agreeing to such are ongoing, and a Comprehensive Convention exists in draft form, however agreement to its exact terms, most particularly the definition of "terrorism", remains elusive.

[5] On 1 April 2014, the Government of Sri Lanka signed an order designating 16 organisations functioning as terrorist fronts on foreign soil freezing all assets and economic resources of those, using this resolution.