PART C OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS RELATING TO FORUM STATES152 General Remarks Since 11 September 2001 and Security Council Resolution 1373 of September 28, 2001,153 many Forum States have, in accordance with their obligations under that Resolution, revised their legislation relating to terrorism and have either amended current legislation or drafted new legislation to address the emerging issues relating to terrorism. In very broad terms Resolution 1373 requires States to attack the funding of terrorism and to deny support to, and prevent, terrorist acts. States were also called upon to exchange information, co-operate and enter into the relevant international instruments relating to terrorism. The Advisory Council notes that many of the counter-terrorism measures introduced in Forum States have been reactive without proper consideration as to the adequacy of existing laws. In our view, any new laws should be enacted only if needed to combat terrorism and only used if strictly necessary for that purpose. As the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Betrand Ramcharan said in his statement to the 8th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions: 152 For further information see pp55-145 of the Background Paper. The information contained in this section is taken primarily from the answers to a questionnaire provided to NHRIs and NGOs in each relevant jurisdiction. Every attempt has been made to ensure accuracy and we apologise unreservedly for any remaining mistakes. The Advisory Council of Jurists also acknowledges the usefulness of the following country-specific submissions: Asia Pacific Human Rights Network Nepal: The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Control and Punishment) Act 2002, Asia Pacific Human Rights Network India: Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002, Asia Pacific Human Rights Network Australia: Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Amendment (Terrorism) Act 2003. 153 S/RES/1373(2001). Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter which authorises the Security Council to determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression and recommend or decide what measures to take to maintain or restore international peace and security, the Security Council required member States to adopt a package of counter-terrorism measures. As noted above, Article 25 of the UN Charter requires member States to carry out Security Council decisions. Resolution 1373 has been described as a ‘minitreaty’ (see Ilias Bantekas ‘The International Law of Terrorist Financing’ (2003) 97 American Jnl Int Law 315, 326). While States are given considerable latitude as to how they implement the requirements, a monitoring committee, the Counter Terrorism Committee, was set up under cl 6 to monitor implementation and states were called upon to report to the Committee within 90 days on the steps they had taken to implement the resolution. 77