Brussels, 09/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - At the end of their 24th Conference (in Moscow on 4 and 5 October), in which Commissioner Antonio Vitorino took part, European justice ministers members and observers of the Council of Europe proposed an action plan to combat terrorism.
The ministers called on the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to adopt measures aimed at: - reviewing existing international instruments, especially the European Convention on the Repression of Terrorism; - drawing up models of laws and codes of conduct for bodies responsible for applying the law; - reviewing or adopting new rules relating to the prosecution of crimes of an international nature, improving information exchange, the protection of witnesses in cases of terrorism, prevention and repression of "cyber-terrorism", improving the protection and compensation of victims and their families; - reinforcing the means of action of the Council of Europe in combating money laundering; - facilitating the identification of people, notably through genetic fingerprinting ; - ensuring the security and control of hazardous substances. The justice minister also called on member States and observers of the Council of Europe to sign, as soon as possible, international treaties on terrorism and actively participate in drawing up a general draft convention on international terrorism.
Furthermore, they paid special attention to execution procedures and appeals to bailiffs and placed emphasis on the need to grant decent conditions of detention to persons serving long or life prison sentences. In this context, they provided their backing to the work undertaken by the Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe on those sentenced to life imprisonment and other long-term detainees, responsible for drawing up guidelines on good practice in this field, and encouraged them to complete work by end-2002.