NOTING
that radicalisation leading to terrorism and violent extremism, due to
its multidimensional and dynamic character, raises significant and
evolving challenges which must also be addressed at judicial level,
primarily by the Member States, but also, where appropriate, by a
coordinated support at European level in accordance with the Treaties;
RECALLING that, in the framework of the EU Counter Terrorism Strategy[1] the Council adopted a revised "EU Strategy for combating Radicalisation and Recruitment" in June 2014[2] and in December 2014[3] and June 2015[4] referred to the importance of preventing and countering the phenomenon as a priority for future action;
RECALLING that the European Council in its statement of 12 February 2015[5]
stressed the need to set up initiatives regarding the rehabilitation in
the judicial context in order to address factors contributing to
radicalisation leading to terrorism and violent extremism, including in
prisons;
BASED
UPON the discussions of the Ministers of Justice regarding an effective
judicial response to radicalisation leading to terrorism and violent
extremism, that were concluded by the Riga Joint Statement of 29 - 30
January 2015, as well as the debates at the Ministerial lunch of
13 March 2015, and mostly recently the results of the Ministerial
Conference of 19 October 2015 dedicated to this subject;
TAKING
INTO ACCOUNT that the Commission's Communication on "Preventing
Radicalisation to Terrorism and Violent Extremism: Strengthening the
EU's response"[6], the European Agenda on Security of April 2015[7], as well as the Council conclusions on the Renewed Internal Security Strategy of June 2015,[8]
consider the specific issues of disengagement, rehabilitation and
de/anti-radicalisation as a priority for action in the next years;
The Council of the European Union and the Member States meeting within the Council,
CONSIDER
it necessary to adopt a cross-sectorial and multidisciplinary approach
to effectively tackle radicalisation leading to terrorism and violent
extremism, taking into account all different aspects: prevention,
investigation, prosecution, conviction, rehabilitation and
reintegration.
CONSIDER
it necessary for this purpose to ensure appropriate coordination and
synergies among all relevant public and private stakeholders, in
particular prosecutors and judges, using the existing legal instruments
and policies in full compliance with the Rule of Law and of the Charter
of Fundamental rights of the European Union,
TAKING INTO DUE ACCOUNT risks to public security
AWARE
of the need both for differentiation depending on actual needs and
specific risks of each local situation, the national legal systems and
judicial organisation, as well as the parties and stakeholders involved,
and thus for a case-by-case approach
CONCLUDE
therefore that the following actions would contribute to the criminal
justice response to radicalisation leading to terrorism and violent
extremism, URGE all relevant stakeholders to implement the appropriate
actions whenever and wherever possible, and STRESS the essential role of
local actors
1. Structure and organisation of detention regimes
- Member
States to implement a considered and tailor-made policy to prevent
radicalisation leading to terrorism and violent extremism in prisons,
adapted to national circumstances and the needs of the individuals
involved, which could include elements such as
- developing risk assessment tools and tools to detect early signs of radicalisation, and strengthening information sharing between the various actors in the criminal justice chain
- providing an adequate number of well-trained religious representatives in prisons and giving support to social workers and counsellors
- offering inmates opportunities for learning and developing critical thinking skills in prison
- enabling a secure prison environment to operate effective rehabilitation and reintegration programmes with attention to the level of respect and interactions between prison staff and detainees
- in this context, continuing to work on the improvement of detention conditions in compliance with the rules developed and on-going work in this area within the Council of Europe
- in
this context, Member States to draw on lessons learnt, best practices
and recommendations proposed by the RAN, and in particular by the "RAN
Prison and Probation" working group, most recently in its stocktaking
paper of October 2015 "Dealing with radicalisation in the prison and
probation context"
- RAN
to continue providing a platform for the exchange of good practices on
this subject, and to feed into the review of the 2008 Handbook drafted
by Austria, France and Germany on how to deal with radicalisation
leading to terrorism and violent extremism, in particular in prisons
- Member States to develop, as appropriate, de-radicalisation/
- Member
States to make use of the RAN Centre of Excellence and the latter's
offer to support them to set up such programmes where requested.
2. Alternative or additional measures to prosecution and/or detention
- Member
States to address their dealings with foreign terrorist fighters in a
multi-disciplinary and holistic way, including, where appropriate,
sharing of relevant information between law enforcement, security
services and prosecution and, where applicable, with local authorities
and social workers; this could be done by setting up multi-disciplinary
bodies or working methods or otherwise ensuring that the follow-up of
the cases is done in an integrated way
- Member
States to use ECRIS to its full potential and the Commission to submit a
proposal for the extension of ECRIS to cover third country nationals
- Member
States to consider, within the framework of their national judicial
organisation and using the flexibilities of their criminal (juvenile)
justice system, a tailor-made, case-by-case approach, based on a proper
risk assessment taking due account of security and public safety
concerns, including, where appropriate, alternative or additional
measures to prosecution and/or detention in all stages of the procedure,
among which rehabilitation, including as a condition for, probation or
suspension of prison sentences
- Member
States to consider using and further developing a risk assessment tool
for judiciary, to be used when considering the above-mentioned
alternative or additional measures, based on an individual approach,
including the possibility to re-evaluate the risk at regular intervals,
taking into account that de-radicalisation is a dynamic process; in this
context use the work done already by the Council of Europe and the
International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT).
3. Integration, rehabilitation and re-integration
- Member
States to lead efforts to address the underlying factors of
radicalisation leading to terrorism and violent extremism through
targeted preventive measures, by developing cohesion-inductive actions
and programmes, including in the education field, that promote
Fundamental Rights, the Rule of Law and democracy and encourage
inclusive, tolerant and pluralistic societies
- local,
national, European and international authorities, together with civil
society, to develop methods and tools on how to break stereotypes and
develop counter-narratives reaching out to different target groups,
including through the creation of networks and public spaces for
dialogue
-
in this context, Member States with the support of the Commission and
the concerned EU agencies, to address in particular the use of the
Internet for terrorism radicalisation and recruitment purposes as well
as for on-line hate speech that fuels fear, spreads misconceptions and
stereotypes targeting specific communities and groups, and incites to
violence and hatred, notably by developing , including with Internet
Service Providers, cooperation on strategic communication and, where
appropriate, internet referral units, for instance continuing support to
the Europol Internet Referral Unit and to the Syria Strategic
Communications Advisory Team
- Member
States to implement measures allowing for rehabilitation,
de-radicalisation or disengagement both inside and outside prisons and
the re-integration of returnees and those prevented from travel into
society, tailored to the local situation and individual case
- Member
States to involve victims and rehabilitated former foreign terrorist
fighters as well as social workers, communities and family
- Member
States to exchange among them experiences and best practices in
rehabilitation, de-radicalisation and disengagement, inside or outside
prisons
- Member
States to make use of the RAN Centre of Excellence's expertise and the
latter's offer to support them in setting up such programmes where
requested.
4. Training
- Member
States to provide the resources for adequate training of all actors
(prison staff, probation officers, judiciary etc.) involved in dealing
with radicalised violent extremists or those at risk of becoming
radicalised, in a sustained and multi-disciplinary way and using the
support available at EU and international level
- the
European Judicial Training Network (EJTN), CEPOL, and using the
expertise of Eurojust, the RAN Centre of Excellence, and, where
appropriate the Confederation of European Probation (CEP) and Europris,
to support Member States with a variety of training (traditional
courses, webinars, exchange of staff, …) for the whole chain of criminal
justice actors dealing with terrorism; in this context, a special
focus should be given to risk assessment methodology and to the
development of rehabilitation programmes, the use of alternatives to
detention, as well as similar training possibilities for non judicial
actors involved in dealing with radicalised persons.
5. Learning from monitoring and exchange of practices
- Eurojust
to continue monitoring trends and developments, by use of its Terrorism
Conviction Monitor (TCM), of the applicable legislative framework and
relevant jurisprudence in the Member States as regards terrorism and
violent radicalisation, including the use of alternatives to prosecution
and detention, and thus contribute to the further development of
criminal policy with regard to foreign terrorist fighters
- Eurojust,
RAN (through its working groups as well as via its Centre of
Excellence), the EJTN, and, where appropriate, Europol, as well as CEP
and Europris, to foster the exchange of existing national practices and
the lessons learnt thereof, using also the work done in other relevant
bodies (in particular UNICRI[9] and GCTF[10]) on
the criminal justice response to radicalisation leading to terrorism and
violent extremism, in particular the issues addressed under points 1 to
4:
- the structure and organization of detention facilities
- the risk assessment tools to be used by judges and prosecutors and by prison staff for assessing the level of threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters and returnees
- the "triage" systems, aimed at assessing the most appropriate "strand" for each individual case
- alternative or additional measures to prosecution and/or detention, and in particular rehabilitation programs both in and outside prisons
- cooperation among relevant actors involved, both within and outside the judicial context, including training
- criminal policy with regard to foreign terrorist fighters
- the use of Internet and social platforms
6. Funding
- the
Commission to facilitate the above via EU funding for training
programmes for the different stakeholders involved and for specific
projects, in accordance with the rules of the relevant funding
programmes,
- the Commission to make available funding for Member States to develop de-radicalisation/
- Member
States to carry out specific projects aimed at better implementing
legislation on racism and xenophobia, including through training of
judges, prosecutors and police; the Commission will make targeted
funding available for this purpose
- Member
States to support civil society organizations to promote tolerance and
counter hate crime and hate speech, including by developing
counter-narratives online, with a contribution from the Commission to
this endeavour
- the Commission to foster the uptake of social integration policies via the European Social Fund
- the
Member States to encourage the different stakeholders involved,
including criminal justice actors, local authorities and civil society
to make full use of the available funding
- the
above actions should be done within the financial resources set out in
the Multiannual Financial Framework, and these issues to be integrated
into the mid-term review of this Framework.
7. External dimension
- the
EU to promote criminal justice response measures to radicalisation
leading to terrorism and violent extremism, internationally and to
assist third partners in this respect, duly taking into account the
local circumstances and security and public safety concerns
INVITE
the Presidency, the Commission and the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator
to report, as and when appropriate, to the Council about progress in
the implementation of these conclusions.
[1]14469/4/05
[2] 9956/14
[3] 16526/14
[4] 9951/15
[5]SN 10/15
[6]5451/14
[7] 8293/15
[8]9798/15
[9] United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute
[10] Global Counter Terrorism Forum
[2] 9956/14
[3] 16526/14
[4] 9951/15
[5]SN 10/15
[6]5451/14
[7] 8293/15
[8]9798/15
[9] United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute
[10] Global Counter Terrorism Forum
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