Strasbourg, 23/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Requested on Monday 20 April by the Committee of Ministers to submit an opinion on the additional protocol to the Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism negotiated in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks in January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) decided to deal with the matter immediately according to the urgency procedure.
The additional protocol deals with “foreign terrorist fighters”. “It's thought that up to 5,000 young Europeans may have gone to fight” with Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and “many return to their home countries radicalised and with potentially deadly new skills”, noted Lord John E. Tomlinson (Labour, UK) on behalf of the legal affairs and human rights committee.
While the committee tasked by PACE does not question the value of complementing the Council of Europe's Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism, it nonetheless shares the concern of a number of major international NGOs, such as Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists and Open Society Justice Initiative, as to the possible negative impact of this text on human rights.
“There is no commonly agreed definition of 'terrorism' or 'terrorist offence' in public international law”, notes Tomlinson in his report, other than as set out in two conventions from the 1970s but these do not apply to armed conflicts and so are not relevant in the context of what is happening in Syria and Iraq.
What is of particular concern to the legal affairs and human rights committee is that the acts set out in the draft additional protocol relate in the main to the preparation of terrorist acts - such as, for example travelling abroad - and that, in this context, the text fails to establish a sufficiently direct link with the principle criminal act. No clear, unambiguous evidence of intention to commit an offence is required, the Tomlinson notes, suggesting that abuses are all the more likely since “much will depend on how States Party implement the Protocol”.
In passing the text proposed by the committee by 76 votes to 3, PACE approved the suggested amendments to the protocol.
These essentially introduce the notions of the “right to a fair trial” (Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights) linked to the principle of the “presumption of innocence” and recall the “freedom of movement and the right to leave any country, including one's own”.
It is also recommended that reference be made to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in that “the phenomenon of 'foreign fighters' concerns - to a certain extent - individuals under the age of 18 whose rights in the context of criminal procedure need special protection”.
The deprivation of nationality (even if the individual concerned has other nationalities) is also a matter of concern for PACE which recommends that the protocol contain a reminder of the international legal obligation on states to avoid statelessness.
“Moreover”, states the text adopted by PACE, “any new measure taken by States in the context of the implementation of the Additional Protocol (if adopted) should never be based solely on the criterion of his/her ethnic origin or nationality, which would be discriminatory”.
The two existing conventions listing “terrorist offences” are the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, signed at The Hague on 16 December 1970, and the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages, adopted in New York on 17 December 1973. (Véronique Leblanc)