ABSTRACT
The Assembly, 1. Denouncing the increase in Europe and throughout the world of terrorist activities of which the Munich tragedy is a particularly horrifying example;
2. Noting that such acts, which are in utter conflict with the traditions and practices governing international relations, raise, in entirely new terms the question of the responsibility of governments to put an end to them;
3. Noting with satisfaction that when the Foreign Ministers of the enlarged Community met in Rome on 11 September 1972, they also recognised Europe’s responsibility in this undertaking of vital importance to our society;
4. Stressing that, although responsibility in this matter is universal, the forces involved in the conflict on either side make it logical for a practical orientation at European level to be found under the political guidance of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, this being the body composed of the greatest number of European States resolved to exert their efforts in the same direction;
5. Recalling Resolution (54) 16 of the Committee of Ministers, urging the governments of the Member States of the Council of Europe to harmonise the attitudes adopted by the European countries within the United Nations and other international organisations;
6. Deploring the fact that the political and material support of a certain number of governments and organisations permits, or facilitates directly or indirectly, the preparation of terrorist outbreaks, or offers refuge to their authors or instigators;
7. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers-(a) work out, in close co-operation, a joint European front to combat
terrorism, and make this a permanent item on its agenda as from its 51st Session in 1 December 1972;
(b) invite, without delay, the governments of the Member States to prevent the use of diplomatic missions or agencies for the preparation of, or as cover for, terrorist activity;
(c) invite the governments of Member States to use all their political and economic influence to dissuade the States concerned from pursuing a policy which allows terrorists to prepare their acts or to reside or find asylum on their territory;
(d) invite governments of Member States which have not yet done so to sign and/or ratify most urgently the three conventions (the Convention on Offences and certain other Acts on Board Aircraft,
Tokyo 1963; the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, The Hague, 1970; and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation, Montreal 1971) against hijacking of aircraft and securing international air transport;
(e) invite the organs of the Council of Europe not to maintain relations with organisations that consider terrorism as a legitimate method of action.
