Recommendation 599
(1970)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 18 April 1970 (2nd Sitting) (see Docs. 2743Docs. 2743, report of the Political Affairs Committee, and 2744 opinion of the Legal Affairs Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 18 April 1970 (2nd Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Strongly condemning the forcible and unlawful seizures of civil aircraft, ground attacks and acts of sabotage directed against commercial airlines and acts of sabotage of aircraft on the ground and in flight ;
2. Expressing its indignation at the loss of human life, and at the serious threat to the safety of airline passengers and crew arising from the increasing number of such incidents ;
3. Emphasising the duty of every state into which a civil aircraft is forcibly abducted promptly to release the aircraft, passengers and crew, to punish severely or to ensure the severe punishment of persons convicted of the offence of air piracy and to dissociate itself from acts of political terrorism directed against commercial airlines, regardless of political circumstances involved ;
4. Aware that practical and legal measures to ensure the safety of international air transport will be effective only if there is international recognition of the seriousness of the offence and if governments are determined to co-operate in its control ;
5. Considering that member governments, by adopting and putting into effect a co-ordinated European policy on measures designed to prevent air piracy, have an essential role to play in ensuring that rapid action is taken at international level ;
6. Welcoming in this respect the security measures proposed at the emergency meeting of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) held in March 1970, and noting that an Extraordinary session of its Assembly is to be convened by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on world aviation safety ;
7. Welcoming the work of ICAO on the unlawful seizure of aircraft, and expressing the hope that the Diplomatic Conference, to which the draft Convention on this matter is to be submitted, will take place as early as possible,
8. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite member governments :
a to deter and where possible to punish those guilty of the abduction of civil aircraft and air passengers ;
b to adopt and co-ordinate all necessary measures designed to detect and prevent the smuggling on to civil aircraft of unlawful weapons or explosives, and to increase security at airports ;
c to ensure that their respective national legislations contain adequate provisions against all acts of unlawful interference with civil aircraft ;
d to ratify, if they have not already done so, the Convention signed in Tokyo in 1963 "on offences and certain other acts committed on board aircraft" ;
e to co-operate through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) and other appropriate agencies in order to bring about rapid international action against air piracy and acts of sabotage on the ground and in flight ;
f to consider in common the adoption of sanctions in the civil aviation field with respect to any state which refuses the immediate release of hijacked aircraft, crew and passengers, or refuses to punish severely or to ensure the severe punishment of persons convicted of the offence of air piracy, or allows them to operate from its territory ;
g to invite member governments to take whatever action is necessary or possible in order to bring forward the date of the international legal conference on the unlawful seizure of aircraft to be convened by ICAO, now scheduled for December 1970 ;
9. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite ECAC to organise a further meeting before the end of the year to review progress made on the implementation of the various measures proposed at European and at international level and, in the light of the Extraordinary session of its Assembly on world aviation safety to be convened by ICAO, to recommend the adoption of standard European safety measures.
