Europe's New Anti Terrorism Convention Strong on Substance, Short on Adherents

By Victor Comras

The new European Anti-Terrorism Convention which entered into force on June 1st, provides for a much broader and improved framework of investigative and judicial cooperation among European countries in combating terrorism than was previously the case. It builds on an earlier 1977 European Terrorism Convention which was much narrower in scope and came into play only after the commission of terrorist acts. Unfortunately, only seven of its thirty-nine European signatories have so far ratified the convention. The seven include Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine. What are the others waiting for?

The new Convention, negotiated two years ago under the auspices of the Council of Europe, completely changes the ground rules. It expands coverage beyond actual “terrorist acts” to “offenses which may lead to acts of terrorism." It also does away with many of the limitations included in the previous convention and calls for full investigative cooperation, mutual assistance and extradition in cases also involving incitement, recruitment and support of terrorist activities.

Article 5 of the convention criminalizes, "public provocation to commit a terrorist offence” which is defined as “the distribution, or otherwise making available, of a message to the public, with the intent to incite the commission of a terrorist offence, where such conduct, whether or not directly advocating terrorist offences, causes a danger that one or more such offences may be committed.”

“Recruitment for Terrorism” is criminalized in Article 6 and defined as “soliciting another person to commit or participate in the commission of a terrorist offence, or to join an association or group, for the purpose of contributing to the commission of one or more terrorist offences by the association or the group.”

Article 7 covers “training for terrorism,” which is also made a criminal act. It defines such training as “Providing instruction in the making or use of explosives, firearms or other weapons or noxious or hazardous substances, or in other specific methods or techniques, for the purpose of carrying out or contributing to the commission of a terrorist offence, knowing that the skills provided are intended to be used for this purpose.”

The new convention also applies to, and criminalizes, other ancillary offenses associated with terrorist activities including conspiracy to, or aiding and abetting the incitement, recruitment or training of terrorists.

The preamble of the new convention states clearly, in a way the UN has still been unable to do, “that terrorist offences and the offences set forth in this Convention, by whoever perpetrated, are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature.”

The EU and other European countries have stressed the great importance of strengthening investigative and judicial cooperation, and the EU has already adopted several directives calling for such cooperation. It is surprising, therefore, that so many European countries have still not ratified this important, two year old, convention. By doing so they would demonstrate their commitment and set an important precedent for other countries, and international bodies to also adopt similar measures to define and criminalize terrorism and the antecedents of terrorism, and to expand extradition, and judicial and investigative cooperation, to cover all such offenses. We are still so far away from this result, and the international community’s efforts to combat terrorism suffers accordingly.

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