KIDNAPPING & TERRORISM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0

INTRODUCTION.......................................................... ....4

2.0

KIDNAPPING.............................................................. .....4

2.1 Meaning of Kidnapping......................................................................4 2.2 Possible Potential Victims...4 2.3 Reasons for Kidnapping against abduction........................................5 2.4 Effects of Kidnapping...5 3.0

TERORRISM............................................................... .....6

3.1

Source,

Meaning

and

Depreciatory

application

of

term.....................6
3.2 3.3 3.4

Types of Terrorism .7 History of terrorism incidences.........................................................9 Causes of terrorism.........................................................................12

3.4.1

Issues

Arising

from

Terrorism

that

Law

will

address....12
4.0

LAWS CREATED IN RESPONSE TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES.13

5.0

CONCLUSION............................................................. ....15
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6.0 7.0

RECOMMENDATIONS.16 REFERENCES.............................................................. ...17

1.0 INTRODUCTION.
Criminology is the scientific study of the making of laws, the breaking of laws, and societys reaction to the breaking of laws. Sometimes these laws are arrived at by the consensus of most members of a community; sometimes they are imposed by those in power. Communities have grown in size, from village to world, and the threats to communities have grown accordingly. World level threats necessitated that

criminological research and crime prevention strategies become globalized.

2.0 KIDNAPPING
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a.

Meaning of Kidnapping Kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against his/her will, usually holding the person in false imprisonment. Generally kidnapping occurs when a person without lawful authority, physically moves another person without the latters consent, with intent to use the abduction in connection with some vile objective.

b.

Possible Potential Victims. a. Children b. Wealthy Families c. Influential Members of the society d. Loved ones e. Women

c.

Reasons for Kidnapping

a. Financial Gain: by asking for ransom, or the transatlantic

slave trade which was a form of kidnapping as men were taken from there villages against their will.
b. Human Trafficking: this is primarily termed as the Mordern

day slavery.

Some of this individuals are forced from there home

residence and end up in different countries around the world. They end up being used for cheap labour and sexual exploitation.

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c. To commit a crime: Some abductors kidnap especially

young girls in order to sexually assault them. Some of this individuals some from mental illnesses.
d. To gain Custody: this mostly relates to child custody

disputes where a parent without custody rights, will take away the child and go with them for good.
e. Revenge: this will either be used to inflict bodily injury to

the victim or a third party. d. Effects of Kidnapping

a. To the Victim: Physical and Psychological Trauma to the

victim e.g an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to psychological trauma. It includes sleep problems, nightmares, impaired memory, panic attacks and depression.
b. To the Society: Economic paralysis dues to payment of a

ransom for example and this will affect the finances of those affected.
c. The victim may feel overprotected by family members and

friends.
d. Kidnapping may lead to murder or sexual exploitation. e. The kidnapper will face sanctions from the state.

3.0 TERRORISM.
a. Source, Meaning and Depreciatory application of term.

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There is no universally accepted definition of terrorism. There is also no universally accepted definition of terrorists. Even the United Nations a world peace body has not come up or adopted a single definition of terrorism and therefore it is necessary for us to consider some of the definitions that have been adopted in international and national legal instruments. The international instruments comprise international

instruments in form of agreements e.g. the Montreal Convention For the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Civil Aviation 1972. [Montreal

Convention] in this convention terrorism was defined as an act of aviation sabotage. Another international convention also attempted to address terrorism i.e. the Hague Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircrafts: (The Hague Convention) the Act said Any person who on

board an aircraft in-flight Unlawfully, by force or threat of force or by any other form of intimidation seizes or exercises control of that aircraft or attempts to perform such act or; They were trying to define terrorism and one of the things that they noted was unlawfully, or by use of force, seizing or exercising control of an aircraft in flight. The UK Terrorism Act of 2000 has a very long definitionthreat constitutes terrorism, serious violence against a person, creates safety to the public etc. Uganda Anti-terrorism Act of 2000threats or use of force or violence against a group of people stand out in the definition.

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The US Patriot Act attempts to define terrorism. The Kenyan Bill defines terrorism in very similar language. From the definitions in the legal instruments, we can agree that an act of terrorism refers to the threat or use of violence in order to create extreme fear and anxiety in a target group so as to coerce them to meet the political, religious or ideological objectives of the perpetrators. b. Types of Terrorism. There is no exact classification of terrorism. However a good list can be inferred to the early 1975, where the Law Enforcement Assistant Administration in the United States formed the National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals. The Task Force classified terrorism into six categories:
a. Civil Disorder- a form of collective violence interfering with the

peace, security and normal functioning of the community.

b. Political Terrorism- violent criminal behaviour designed primarily to

generate fear in the community, or substantial segment of it, for political purposes.
c. Non-Political Terrorism terrorism that is not aimed at political

purposes but which exhibits conscious design too create and maintain a high degree of fear for coercive purposes , but the end is individual or collective gain rather than the achievement of a political objective.
d. Quasi-terrorism the activities incidental to the commission of

crimes of violence that are similar in form and method to genuine

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terrorism, but which nevertheless lacks its essential ingredient. It is not the main purpose of the quasi-terrorists to induce terror in the immediate victim as in the case of genuine terrorism, but the quasi terrorist uses the modalities and techniques of the genuine terrorist and produces similar consequences and reaction.
e. Limited

Political by

Terrorism a

genuine

political

terrorism

is

characterized

revolutionary

approach,

limited

political

terrorism refers to acts of terrorism which are committed for ideological or political motives but which are not part of a concerted campaign to capture control of the state.
f. Official or State Terrorism - this refers to nations whose rule is

based upon fear and oppression that reach similar to terrorism or such proportions. It can also be referred to as structural terrorism which is defined broadly as terrorist acts carried out by government in pursuit of political objectives. Several sources have further defined the typology of terrorism to include: I. Political terrorism II. Substate Terrorism. Social Revolutionary Terrorism Nationalist-separatist terrorism Religious extremist terrorism Religious fundamentalist terrorism. New religious terrorism.

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Right-Wing terrorism Left-wing terrorism Single issue terrorism State Sponsored terrorism. Regime Terrorism III. Criminal Terrorism. IV. Pathological terrorism. c. History of Terrorist Incidences. Terrorism is an old problem and one needs to know the motivation of the terrorist act in order to be able to take an appropriate state response. In the period up to the early 70s an attempt was made to equate

terrorism which manifested itself with aircraft hijacking and sea piracy which preceded aircraft hijacking. The nature of aircraft hijacking was examined and it was discovered it was quite different from sea piracy. The earliest reported terrorism activities was in 1930 where an aircraft was seized and diverted to another country by Peruvian revolutionaries and after this incident there was no other seizure until 1947 and then from1947 such hijacking of aircrafts seizures increased . In 1959 a US Flag aircraft was seized in the US and forced it to fly to Cuba. In 1952 in Yugoslavia, 3 Yugoslavian crew members on an in-country flight subdued the other flight personnel and diverted the aircraft to Switzerland. When they landed in Switzerland, the reason was that the political climate in Yugoslavia was intolerable and the crew members
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were seeking asylum in Switzerland. When they reached Switzerland an extradition request was made by Yugoslavia and Switzerland denied the request and gave asylum to the crew noting that they were political refugees. In 1970 9 revolutionary Japanese students calling themselves the red army hijacked a Japanese Boeing 727 and forced the aircraft to fly to North Korea (there was a flight embargo on flights from Japan to North Korea and the students wanted to make a point by flying to North Korea) they later flew back to Japan. In 1961 5 men and 1 woman who were a group of political activists, they were Portuguese who were supporting a particular Captain Galvao who was a presidential aspirant. They seized a Portuguese Aircraft and

commandeered the pilot to circle over Lisbon to be able to drop leaflets supporting Captain Galvao and once all the leaflets were finished, they commandeered the aircraft to Morocco. They sought Asylum in

Morocco while the govt was investigating but were later expelled from Morocco but Brazil proceeded to grant them asylum. In 1967 an aircraft carrying a Congolese Prime Minister was captured and the Prime Minister jailed. The fight to liberation of Palestine was responsible for many aircraft airjacking. Between 1963 and 1970 there were a total of 210 incidences of aircraft hijackings. involved. For many of the aircrafts hijackings the US was

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The 90 Minutes at Entebbe incident of 1976. From the late 1970s terrorist activities took a different dimension. In 1980 terrorism took a new dramatic turn and there was a lot of threats of violence involved and it became clearer that certain groups were targeted which raises so many legal issues. The financing of terrorism has become a major problem, organisations and religious group exist that finance terrorism activities and a proliferation of terrorist organizations of all kinds. Local support for foreign terrorist activities is another phenomenon. Religious fundamentalism is also another reason of increased terrorist activities. Muslims have been mentioned but they also apportion blame to the Christians. It is both ways. d. Causes of Terrorism. A terrorist must indeed have a reason. In many cases the motive is political, there are situations where some people flee countries for political havens, political turmoil, there are also cases where terrorist attacks are carried for transportation purposes. Unbalanced persons have also played their role (disturbed persons) a. Ideological factors ideological antagonism is one of those factors that force people to carry out terrorist activities. There are those who

believe in capitalism and other in communism. Ideologies can either be political or religious. b. Criminal reasons there are cases where criminal escaping from one country to another hijack aircrafts.
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c. Terrorism activities for purposes of personal material gain.

3.d.1 Issues Arising from Terrorism that Law will address.

1. Injury to persons; 2. Property damage; 3. Issue of custody of hijackers how are terrorists to be handled once they surrender or are arrested: 4. Prosecution of terrorists who has the jurisdiction to prosecute? Capacity to prosecute? 5. Safety of passenger where an aircraft is hijacked how does law ensure the safety of passengers? 6. Extradition returning a terrorist to their country of origin upon request. 7. Economic and Social impact of terrorist activities 8. Root causes of terrorism; 9. in most cases it may involve more than one country and law has to address this; 10. Asylum the Charter of the United Nations and more clearly the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants the right to every person to seek asylum in a foreign country. 11. State sponsored terrorism; some states support terrorism and

terror activities
4.0

LAWS CREATED IN RESPONSE TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES.

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The

International Legal Regime International Agreements that regional agreements

comprise treaties and conventions on terrorism, and bilateral agreements.

Geneva Convention of 1958 intended to deal with sea piracy but included aircraft hijackings but which was found to be hopelessly inadequate as the activities involved in aircraft hijacking were totally different from Sea Piracy. The Montreal Convention: concerning terrorism were left out. The Tokyo Convention: this convention had many weaknesses and did not confine its subject matter to aircraft hijacking but instead dealt with a number of crimes some of which were local in character. Some of the problems with the conventions was that they conflicted with other laid down conventions like the Declaration of Human Rights which says that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from prosecution. This principle was reaffirmed by the UN Resolution in Article 14 of 1967 it reaffirmed the right to seek asylum by declaring that the situation of the person invoking the right to asylum is of concern to the international community and that person shall not be subject to extradition and ought to be granted asylum Article 7 obligates parties to prosecute or extradite persons who commit terrorism activities and yet we have the universal declaration of human rights which says that they must be given asylum and not prosecuted. many matters

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These were just some of the weaknesses and there was also lack of political will. At the international level there is a legal regime supposed to address terrorism but it is faulty. Can a national legislative be adequate? UN Resolution of 2001 soon after the September 11th Attack. This is the resolution in which the UN expressly recognised the act of terrorism and called upon countries members of the UN to create national laws in response to terrorism. Countries are expect to implement soft laws concerning terrorism. Countries like Kenya should consider the following issues concerning terrorism in the new dispensation 1. Porous Borders; e.g. borders between Kenya and Somalia, Ethiopia,

Eritrea etc;
2.

Definition of Terrorism is problematic and there ought to be a clear

definition of terrorism in the national legislation; 3. 4. Jurisdiction to try offenders who has the right to try offenders? Capacity to try terrorists? Or the knowledge of terrorism and

capacity to hold them in custody; 5. Constitutional compliance to what extent is a country going to

abridge constitutional rights of its citizens to comply with terrorism laws? 6. 7. 8. Information sharing: countries must be able to share information; Terrorist Organisations Disaster preparedness contemporary problems to be addressed
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9.

Root causes of terrorism consider the root causes

10. Domestic acts of protests must be considered 11. Issue of Sovereignty to what extent can a country give up its sovereignty for sake of investigations and arrest of terrorists. 12. Impacts on the population; social and economic impacts 13. Public participation in law making and in implementation of the laws; 14. Matters concerning the rule of law; to what extent we going to 15. What is law addressing and how are we trying to deter terrorism Section 4, 93, 12, 16 AND Section 30. Terrorism has presented very

many legal challenges and in many cases anti-terrorism legislation. Certain : Concept of a right who has the right; Concept of punishment how do you use punishment to deter the terrorist act if the perpetrator is willing to die; Social contract theory this is challenged ; State sovereignty has been challenged; Idea of fighting proxy wars; Issue of collateral damage
5.0

CONCLUSION.
In 1974 Yasser Arafat in an address to the UN General Assembly succinctly explained that the difference between the revolutionary and the terrorist lies in the reason for which they fight. Terrorist are criminal gangs who seek publicity.

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The one who stands by a just cause and fights for the freedom and liberation of his land from the invader, and they cannot be possibly be called terrorists.
6.0

RECOMMENDATIONS.
a.

Ratify conventions. Laws on money laundering Disaster preparedness and emergency action plan Share information Create legal framework for corroboration

b. c. d. e.

7.0 REFERENCES. I.
a.

BOOKS
Criminology Handout by Dr. John Martin Owor (2011). Good Muslim Bad Muslim by Mahmood Mamdani Pakistan and the Mumbai Attacks (2010) by Sebastian Rotella Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheu (2010) 1st Edition Terror in the name of God by Jessica Stern 2nd Edition The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror1st Edition by Bernard Lewis

b.
c. d. e. f.

g. h.

Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam by Reuven Firestone Inside Terrorism by Bruce Hoffman

II.

WEBSITES.
www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigative/terrorism
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www.kenyalaw.org/cases

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