Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 4 Blanket denials and the obstruction of judicial and/or parliamentary inquiries by states and NATO must be replaced by independent, impartial and thorough investigations. State secrecy and national security cannot be used as a pretext to block the disclosure of evidence of official involvement in serious violations of human rights. military, national and foreign -- on its territory or within its jurisdiction; o the respect of human rights by transiting civilian and state aircraft; and the waiver of immunity for state officials reasonably suspected of involvement in grave violations of human rights.  The Council of Europe member states must ensure that multilateral and bilateral agreements and actions taken to implement them, including those made in the context of NATO, are consistent with their duties to respect and protect human rights.  The Council of Europe should develop standards which make it clear that information related to the involvement of agents of the State in grave human rights violations can not be protected as a “state secret”.  The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers and the Council of the European Union (EU) must end their silence, in the face of the information revealed by the investigations of inquiries carried out by the PACE, the Council of Europe’s Secretary General and the EU’s European Parliament.  The Committee of Ministers must also take measures to implement Recommendation 1754 (2006), concerning involvement by European states in renditions and secret detentions, made by the Parliamentary Assembly, a year ago.  The Council of Europe should establish an adequately resourced European parliamentary inquiry mechanism.  o They must publicly condemn rendition, secret detention, and enforced disappearance; o They must demand that the member states initiate independent, impartial and effective investigations; bring those responsible for unlawful conduct to justice and ensure adequate reparation for the victims of rendition and secret detention. The Committee of Ministers must also take action to address existing gaps in international law which may have facilitated these practices. In particular, the Ministers should immediately mandate groups to draft, in a transparent manner, the standards recommended by the Secretary General a year ago. These proposed standards should aim at: o These measures are essential to demonstrate the real commitment -- in action as in words -- of the Council of Europe and its member states to the founding principles of the Council of Europe. Respect for human rights and the rule of law demand no less. Our future collective and individual security depends on it. ensuring effective democratic oversight and accountability for all intelligence services -- civilian, Amnesty International AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007