17/03/2010 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
While noting that current national systems for dealing with sex offenders vary greatly between member states, the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, convinced that the management of sex offenders requires international co-operation, called on European governments to introduce a sex offenders register containing information on persons convicted of such offences in order to produce a central file "allowing an exchange of information between entitled authorities, as strictly defined by law".
The committee considered that a register of this kind can fulfil a key role in the supervision of offenders, especially when employed as part of a comprehensive sex offenders management programme. The information in the register can be used to assess the risk that the offender poses to the community and therefore manage that risk.
As proposed by the rapporteur, Marietta de Pourbaix-Lundin (Sweden, EPP/CD), the parliamentarians urged member states to increase the quality, quantity and frequency of the information (including confidential information) they share with other member states on sex offenders in order to effectively monitor the movements of offenders who travel abroad.