Cairo Declaration Against Terrorism

AWARE of the serious danger posed by acts of terrorism, not only with regard to security and stability, but also to the State of Law, to democracy and to human rights,

EXPRESSING its deep concern at the escalation of international terrorism, which makes it essential to adopt the idea of appropriate countermeasures, co-ordinated between all countries,

MANIFESTING its desire to increase the effectiveness of joint international action to guarantee international peace and security,

The ICPO-Interpol General Assembly, meeting in Cairo from 22nd to 27th October 1998 at its 67th session:

DECLARES:

(1) That it strongly condemns all terrorist acts, methods and practices as criminal and unjustifiable, irrespective of where and by whom they are carried out, and that it attaches great importance to the implementation of all the resolutions already voted on this subject and listed in the "Guidelines for Co-operation in Combating International Terrorism";

(2) That it fully supports the proposal to organize, under the aegis of the United Nations, an international conference on combating terrorism, with the aim of setting up, in close co-ordination with Interpol, a common international strategy for taking all appropriate prevention, protection, surveillance, and law enforcement measures, and to prepare concrete proposals for more effective action in combating terrorism, its funding and support networks and its pernicious effects on international peace and security;

(3) That it attaches the greatest importance to the idea of implementing an international action plan to strengthen police and judicial co-operation between member countries, inter alia by eliminating the obstacles which hinder the extradition of fugitive terrorists, the sharing of information essential to criminal investigations and to terrorism prevention measures, the detection of all types of traffic in weapons, explosives or other items directly or indirectly connected with the activities of organized terrorist groups, and the adoption of specific criminal charges relating to the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes;

(4) That it is necessary for all the Organization's members to undertake to observe the principle of international solidarity in the fight against terrorism, the application of which - subject to the constitutional principles of each member country - should make it possible to prevent their territories being used for the preparation, perpetration, or financing of acts of terrorism endangering the peace and security of other countries.