03/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Council of Europe Secretary General, Walter Schwimmer, has appealed to the Council of Europe member countries that have not yet signed or ratified the European Biometrics Convention and the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the Prohibition of Cloning Human Beings to do so in 2003. He also invited Council of Europe observer states, like the United States, to join the "European alliance against the violation of human dignity by cloning".