A/HRC/4/26 page 18 65. Suicide attacks are a form of terrorism in which the perpetrator is expected to die. However, the actual purpose of suicide attacks is not to commit suicide but to kill and injure the maximum number of persons.44 Politically motivated suicides may be committed as a form of protest, without endangering the lives of others. Giving up one’s own life can also happen as an intentionally chosen method of warfare between the parties to an armed conflict. Depending on the circumstances, such a method may be lawful or in breach of international humanitarian law. As a form of terrorism, however, suicide attacks target “civilians” i.e. innocent bystanders or members of the general population or segments of it. Suicide attacks as a form of terrorism aim, through a high number of civilian casualties and full media coverage, at the production of a negative psychological effect on an entire population and beyond.45 Suicide attacks as a form of terrorism are always morally inexcusable. 66. The Special Rapporteur notes that language related to warfare is commonly used in the context of counter-terrorism, and cautions against this practice, as it frequently leads to uncertainty as to the human rights obligations of States in the context of counter-terrorism. This caution is necessary also in respect of suicide attacks as a specific form of terrorism. 67. Suicide terrorism often has a political aim.46 It has been used as a method to respond to foreign occupation or heavy military action. Suicide attacks are used to pressure the target society to demand that its Government change its policies.47 It is used more generally as a method to change current power relationships and, ultimately, to change the world order.48 Even though suicide bombers may use religious elements in their rhetoric about killing, the main goal is usually secular and political.49 44 “The logic of suicide terrorism”, an interview with Robert Pape in The American Conservative, 18 July 2005. 45 Yoram Schweitzer, “Suicide terrorism: developments and characteristics”, 21 April 2000, http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=112. 46 As Peter Waldmann has pointed out, see Terrorismus - Provokation der Macht, München, 1998. 47 Martha Crenshaw, “Suicide Terrorism in Comparative Perspective”, in Countering Suicide Terrorism, I. Herzilya, The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, 2002; Rohan Gunaratna, “The LLTE and suicide terrorism”, Frontline, vol. 17, issue 3, February 2000. See online at www.flonnet.com/fl1703/17031060.htm. 48 49 See, Schweitzer, op. cit., p. 49. Some authors stress however that the analysis of Al-Qaida must be understood in the framework of Islam. See e.g. Tilman Seidensticker, “Der religiöse und historische Hintergrund des Selbstmordattentats im Islam”, in Hans Kippenberg/Tilman Seiensticker (eds.). Terror im Dienste Gottes, Frankfurt a.M., 2004.