Brussels, 06/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The EU is increasingly ignoring human rights standards in its policy on combating terrorism, an independent panel of jurists said on Friday. This was the main conclusion of the experts appointed by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) which, for three days in Brussels, heard evidence from representatives of the European institutions, lawyers and representatives of civil society from various member states. Panel chairman Arthur Chaskalson, a former president of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former Justice Minister, said he was “very concerned” about the various measures or cases which have recently sullied human rights in Europe. He said that recent EU-US agreements on PNR and SWIFT would allow personal data to be used by other countries for a “multitude of other purposes” than the fight against terrorism. With regard to the alleged illegal CIA activities in Europe, Professor Robert K. Goldman, a former chairman of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, said that member states had shown an attitude which he described a “devious”, even “complicit”. A further subject of concern, he said, was that some states, for example France, could hold a person for up to six days without this person's having access to a lawyer. The panel also highlighted the importance of ensuring proper supervision over intelligence services. These services very often contributed to the setting up of an “underground penal system”, which was particularly fond of abducting people, said Raul Zaffaroni, a magistrate in Argentina's Supreme Court. A further controversy raised by the panel was the lack of fair procedures for the drawing up of United Nations or EU “blacklists” of terrorist organisations. The Council's recent publication of its revised list of terrorist organisations and groups showed that the judgment delivered by the Court of Justice in December had had “no impact”, despite the appearance of a fair procedure having been put in place, said Hina Jilani, a lawyer at the Supreme Court of Pakistan (see EUROPE 9458 and 9326). (bc)