International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists was held between November 24 and December 21, 1898 following the assassination of Empress Elisabeth of Austria by Luigi Lucheni on the promenade of Lake Geneva on September 10, 1898. 54 delegates attended from 21 different countries. Every participating country agreed to set up special organisations for the surveillance of those suspected of anarchism defined as "as any act that used violent means to destroy the organization of society". The other resolutions drafted in the final protocol included the introduction of legislation in the participating countries to prohibit the illegitimate possession and use of explosions, membership in anarchist organizations, the distribution of anarchist propaganda, and the rendering of assistance to anarchists. It was also agreed that governments should try to limit press coverage of anarchist activities, and that the death penalty should be mandatory punishment for all assassinations of heads of state.
The authorities used the opportunity to organize an international system of exchange among the national police agencies, using the ‘portrait parlé’ method of criminal identification. This was developed from the bertillonage system invented by Alphonse Bertillon and involved the classification of criminal suspects on the basis of numerically expressed measurements of parts of their head and body.
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