A/HRC/24/47 enshrined in various international, regional and national instruments apply also to victims of terrorist hostage-taking. 2. Relevant regional instruments 57. A number of regional intergovernmental bodies have adopted their own legal instruments and set up mechanisms aimed at addressing various aspects of terrorism. The instruments generally refer to the standards set in relevant global treaties. The Council of Europe has adopted a number of instruments aimed at preventing and combating terrorism.103 Similarly, the European Union adopted Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA on combating terrorism and developed the holistic European Union Counter-Terrorism Strategy.104 Adopted in 2005, the Strategy commits the European Union to the fight against terrorism globally while respecting human rights and allowing its citizens to live in an area of freedom, security and justice. 58. OAS has adopted two major instruments on terrorism: the Convention to Prevent and Punish the Acts of Terrorism Taking the Form of Crimes against Persons and Related Extortion that Are of International Significance; and the Inter-American Convention against Terrorism. It also established the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism, which has a mandate to promote and develop cooperation among OAS Member States to prevent, combat and eliminate terrorism.105 59. The African Union has adopted two instruments aimed at ensuring State cooperation in combating terrorism: the Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism; and the Protocol thereto. It has moreover adopted a decision that unequivocally calls for the criminalization of payment of ransom to terrorist hostage-takers (see paragraph 40 above). 60. In 2007, ASEAN adopted its own Convention on Counter-Terrorism. In 1998, the League of Arab States adopted the Arab Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism, while the Organization of Islamic Conference has its Convention on Combating International Terrorism.106 V. Conclusions and recommendations 61. Various records show that the phenomenon of terrorist hostage-taking in general and hostage-taking for ransom in particular has increased in recent years. For decades, the phenomenon of hostage-taking by armed groups, drug dealers and other criminal gangs has been a part of day-to-day life in certain parts of the world, such as a number of Latin American countries. The relatively recent proliferation of incidents of hostage-taking for ransom in northern, West and East Africa shows that the phenomenon is proving to be a booming enterprise for terrorist groups. Moreover, hostage-taking for ransom is increasingly a modus operandi of groups involved in piracy across the Horn of Africa. A clear understanding of terrorist hostage-taking and differentiation between this phenomenon and related criminal acts requires a combined reading of the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages, 103 104 105 106 Such as the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism; the Protocol amending the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism; the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism; and the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism. See http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/fight_against_terrorism/ l33275_en.htm. See www.oas.org/oaspage/crisis/crisis_en.htm. See www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3de5e6646.html. 19