Home Content Chapter 2 INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
AGAINST THE TAKING OF HOSTAGES
adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations
on 17 December 1979
The States Parties to this Convention …
Have Agreed as follows—
ARTICLE 1
1. Any person who seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure or continue to detain another person (hereinafter referred to as the 'hostage') in order to compel a third party, namely, a State, an international intergovernmental organisation, a natural or juridical person, or a group of persons, to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage commits the offence of taking of hostages ('hostage-taking') within the meaning of this Convention.
2. Any person who—
(a) attempts to commit an act of hostage-taking; or
(b) participates as an accomplice of anyone who commits or attempts to commit an act of hostage-taking, likewise commits an offence for the purposes of this Convention.
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ARTICLE 5
1. Each State Party shall take such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over any of the offences set forth in Article 1 which are committed—
(a) in its territory or on board a ship or aircraft registered in that State;
(b) by any of its nationals or, if that State considers it appropriate, by those Stateless persons who have their habitual residence in its territory;
(c) in order to compel that State to do or abstain from doing any act; or
(d) with respect to a hostage who is a national of that State, consider it appropriate.
2. Each State Party shall likewise take such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the offences set forth in Article 1, in cases where the alleged offender is present in its territory and it does not extradite him to any of the States mentioned in paragraph 1 of this article.
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