A/HRC/8/13 page 8 C. The work of the United Nations human rights mechanisms 15. The United Nations human rights treaty bodies have continued to take up issues related to terrorism in their examinations of State party reports and individual complaints. In their concluding observations, different committees have urged States parties to recognize and ensure that the human rights treaties apply at all times, whether in peace, war or armed conflict, in any territory under their jurisdiction. The Human Rights Committee, in its consideration of some States’ periodic reports, expressed concerns regarding the potentially overbroad reach of the definitions of terrorism under domestic law; the practice by some States parties of detaining people secretly and in secret places for months and years, as well as holding individuals. They also raised allegations of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in detention facilities in different locations; and of ill-treatment or poor conditions of detention in addition to issues of profiling and discrimination. Other serious concerns included the practice by some States parties of sending, or assisting in the sending of, suspected terrorists to third countries, for purposes of detention and interrogation, without the appropriate safeguards to prevent treatment in violations to human rights treaties. 16. The issue of respect for human rights while countering terrorism was also raised during the examination of country reports at the first session of the Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review in April 2008. D. Other developments 17. On 14-18 April 2008, a meeting was organized in South Africa by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in the context of its 118th Assembly. The meeting focused on three areas of human rights: security in the context of countering terrorism, xenophobia and trafficking in persons. The meeting was attended by the Regional Representative for Southern Africa on behalf of OHCHR. Background documents on human rights, terrorism and counter-terrorism were provided to it for background and guidance. II. CERTAIN ISSUES OF CONCERN 1. National legislation: legality and definition 18. Terrorism is not a new phenomenon. It has been on the international agenda since 1934, when the League of Nations took the first major step towards outlawing this scourge by discussing a draft convention for the prevention and punishment of terrorism. Although the Convention was eventually adopted in 1937, it never came into force. Since 1963, the international community has elaborated no fewer than 13 universal legal instruments to prevent terrorist acts. Currently Member States are negotiating a fourteenth international treaty, a draft comprehensive convention on international terrorism. This keystone convention would complement the existing framework of international anti-terrorism instruments and would build on key guiding principles already present in recent anti-terrorist conventions. It focuses on the importance of criminalization of terrorist offences, making them punishable by law and calling for prosecution or extradition of the perpetrators.