The Council of Europe adopted new recommendations the case or convicted of terrorist offenses
Recently, recommendations on risk assessment in relation to persons accused or sentenced for offenses of a terrorist nature have been adopted. The main purpose of the recommendations prepared by the Council of Europe Committee on Counter-Terrorism (CDCT) is to support practitioners and decision-makers in Member States in integrating risk assessment processes into their national systems, as well as designing and implement appropriate risk assessment tools.
The recommendations refer to the challenges related to the potential resulting from the differences in belonging and the social situation of people involved in terrorist activities. Therefore, the recommendations emphasize the need for appropriate and effective tools to identify potential threats to society from such people, while safeguarding the fundamental rights of potential perpetrators.
The recommendations are intended to cover all stages at which risk assessment may be applied, from court to eventual execution and release from prison. For each of them, there is provided guidance on how to properly conduct a risk assessment and how to properly use the results of the process, in particular to support judicial decisions or appropriate security measures. Practical guidance on key methodological aspects of risk assessment is also included.