30 Human Rights in Counter-Terrorism Investigations The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism issued a compilation of international good practices concerning the work of intelligence agencies in relation to counter terrorism, it states: “Before entering into an intelligence-sharing agreement or sharing intelligence on an ad hoc basis, intelligence services undertake an assessment of the counterpart’s record on human rights and data protection, as well as the legal safeguards and institutional controls that govern the counterpart. Before handing over information, intelligence services make sure that any shared intelligence is relevant to the recipient’s mandate, will be used in accordance with the conditions attached and will not be used for purposes that violate human rights.” 40 1.1.4 Maintenance of Intelligence Systems An essential part of the intelligence-management process is database maintenance. The operational benefits of maintaining a lean system that is weeded regularly have already been set out above. It also helps to keep the system in compliance with human rights standards. 40 As with the evaluation of information, weeding is best done systematically, regularly and according to a set of established criteria. Most OSCE participating States have some form of legislation relating to data protection, and these often contain a set of principles that govern how data is to be used, kept, processed, deleted and disclosed. This includes provisions establishing regular checks of the quality of the data and regulating how long information should be kept. Data must be adequate, relevant, non-excessive, accurate, complete and up-to-date, and people should be able to have access to and the opportunity to correct their own personal data. Complying with these requirements necessitates that databases are regularly reviewed and information that is no longer relevant and up-to-date is deleted. 40 United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Martin Scheinin, Report to the UN Human Rights Council, 17 May 2010, A/HRC/14/46, para. 46, <http://www.un.org/ Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/HRC/14/46>.