Recommendation 2063 (2015) Final version

Witness protection as an indispensable tool in the fight against organised crime and terrorism in Europe

Author(s): Parliamentary Assembly

Origin - Assembly debate on 30 January 2015 (9th Sitting) (see Doc. 13647, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur: Mr Arcadio Díaz Tejera). Text adopted by the Assembly on 30 January 2015 (9th Sitting).

1. Referring to its Resolution 2038 (2015) on witness protection as an indispensable tool in the fight against organised crime and terrorism in Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

1.1. take stock of the implementation of its Recommendation Rec(2005)9 on the protection of witnesses and collaborators of justice;

1.2. undertake a comprehensive study on the design and operation of witness protection programmes in all Council of Europe member States, in particular with respect to incentives for co-operation of collaborators of justice, in order to harmonise, where necessary, rules for the transnational implementation of such measures;

1.3. encourage member States to collect and share statistics on the results of co-operation of witnesses and collaborators of justice with the investigative and judicial authorities, in particular the number of convictions based on their testimonies.