The Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism was opened for signature in Warsaw on 16 May 2005 as Treaty No. 196, at the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government. It is not CETS 198 on laundering of the proceeds of crime, opened the same day, nor the 1977 European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism (ETS 90). The authentic texts are English and French, in a single copy deposited in the archives of the Council of Europe. The Secretary General transmits certified copies. The Appendix lists the UN and sectoral treaties that define, for this text, a “terrorist offence”; no operational catalogue is transcribed.

Article 2 sets the purpose: to enhance the efforts of Parties in preventing terrorism and its negative effects on the full enjoyment of human rights, in particular the right to life, by measures at national level and through international co-operation, with due regard to treaties already applicable. The preamble recalls that measures must respect the rule of law, democratic values, human rights and, where applicable, international humanitarian law, and that the Convention is not intended to affect established principles relating to freedom of expression and freedom of association.

Articles 5 to 7 require Parties to criminalise, when committed unlawfully and intentionally, three new offences: public provocation to commit a terrorist offence, recruitment for terrorism and training for terrorism. The definitions remain at the level of principle: a message made available to the public with intent to incite, soliciting a person to participate or to join a group for that purpose, and providing instruction for the commission of a terrorist offence, knowing the intended use. Methods, weapons and a recruitment handbook are not transcribed. Article 8: criminalisation does not depend on the actual commission of a terrorist offence. Article 16 limits application when everything is internal to a single State, subject to the co-operation exceptions provided.

Article 12 ties criminalisation to human-rights obligations, in particular freedom of expression, association and religion under the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, plus the principle of proportionality in a democratic society. Article 13 requires protection, support and, where domestic law so provides, compensation for victims. Articles 17 to 21 organise criminal co-operation, the extradite-or-prosecute rule, exclusion of the political exception (subject to the permitted reservation) and the non-discrimination clause, without an operational extradition protocol.

Article 23: open for signature by the member States of the Council of Europe, the European Community and non-member States which have participated in its elaboration; instruments are deposited with the Secretary General. It enters into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of three months after six Signatories, of which at least four are Council members, have expressed their consent to be bound. The Treaty Office records 1 June 2007. Article 30 provides for Consultation of the Parties. An Additional Protocol (CETS 217) was opened in Riga in 2015; it is not this instrument.

Cover: the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, venue of the Third Summit of the Council of Europe; we do not claim the signing hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism; Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism (CETS No. 196).