166. When providing their expert opinions before this Court, expert witnesses Scheinin and Andreu-Guzmán referred to Resolution 1566(2004) of the United Nations Security Council175 and the “model definition of terrorism” developed in 2010 by Martin Scheinin as Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism and maintained by Ben Emmerson, the following Special Rapporteur for this issue.176 Both experts considered it necessary to develop relevant standards to evaluate national definitions of terrorist offenses, because this would allow identifying basic or characteristic elements that determine egregious conduct of a terrorist nature.177 167. However, these expert witnesses and expert witness Cancio Meliá178 agreed that international law does not contain a definition of terrorism that is complete, concise and accepted universally.179 175 Resolution 1566 (2004) of the United Nations Security Council of 8 October 2004, paragraph 3: Recalls that criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act, which constitute offences within the scope of and as defined in the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism, are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature, and calls upon all States to prevent such acts and, if not prevented, to ensure that such acts are punished by penalties consistent with their grave nature. Cf. UN Doc. S/RES/1566 (2004), Security Council, Resolution 1566 (2004), adopted by the Security Council at its 5053rd meeting on 8 October 2004. 176 In his report on “Ten areas of best practices in countering terrorism”, the Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while combatting terrorism, Martin Scheinin gave the following “model definition” as “a best practice in the fight against terrorism.” He indicated that “[t]errorism means an action or attempted action where: 1. The action: (a) Constituted the intentional taking of hostages; or (b) Is intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to one or more members of the general population or segments of it; or (c) Involved lethal or serious physical violence against one or more members of the general population or segments of it; and 2. The action is done or attempted with the intention of: (a) Provoking a state of terror in the general public or a segment of it; or (b) Compelling a Government or international organization to do or abstain from doing something; and (3) The action corresponds to: (a) The definition of a serious offence in national law, enacted for the purpose of complying with international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism or with resolutions of the Security Council relating to terrorism; or (b) All elements of a serious crime defined by national law.” He also emphasized that: “laws and policies must be limited to the countering of offences that correspond to the characteristics of conduct to be suppressed in the fight against international terrorism, as identified by the Security Council in its resolution 1566 (2004), paragraph 3,” and stated that: “individual States affected by purely domestic forms of terrorism may also legitimately include in their terrorism definitions conduct that corresponds to all elements of a serious crime as defined by the national law, when combined with the other cumulative characteristics of resolution 1566 (2004).” Cf. UN Doc. A/HRC/16/51, December 21, 2010, Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Martin Scheinin, Ten areas of best practices in countering terrorism, paras. 23, 27 and 28. 177 Cf. Affidavit prepared on May 27, 2013, by expert witness Federico Andreu-Guzmán (file of statements of presumed victims, witnesses and expert witnesses, folios 601 to 624), and statement made by expert witness Martin Scheinin before the Inter-American Court during the public hearing held on May 29 and 30, 2013. 178 Cf. Affidavits prepared on May 21, 2013, by expert witness Manuel Cancio Meliá, and on May 27, 2013, by expert witness Federico Andreu-Guzmán (file of statements of presumed victims, witnesses and expert witnesses, folios 114 to 58