A/HRC/24/47 offences within the scope of and as defined in the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism.15 14. While some may argue that the above definition is somewhat authoritative, it is worth noting that the Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research lists some 250 definitions of terrorism elaborated throughout the past two centuries and beyond. 16 The persistent lack of a consensual definition of terrorism is rooted in the multiple manifestations of terrorist acts, as well as in the diversity of actors, motives and modus operandi of terrorists.17 For this reason, determining whether a particular case of hostagetaking or kidnapping constitutes a terrorist act; especially when conducted by a group not globally catalogued as terrorist, remains an arduous task. B. The problem of terrorist hostage-taking: nature, scope and major dimensions 15. Owing to differing classifications of cases of hostage-taking – and more generally of terrorist incidents – in different studies, it is difficult to find aggregate data documenting the phenomenon for a particular period of time. According to one study, from 1968 to 1982, of the approximately 8,000 reported terrorist events, 540 (7 per cent) were transnationa1 hostage-taking acts involving 3,162 hostages, and 20 per cent of those acts resulted in death or personal injury to the victims. “Since 1968, 188 terrorist groups have seized hostages in incidents involving kidnapping, skyjacking, and barricading”.18 Similarly, data on a longer time period (from 1968 to 2005) indicate that, of some 12,942 terrorism incidents, “1,941 hostage events, made up of 1318 kidnappings, 380 skyjackings, and 243 other hostage events (i.e., barricade missions and non-aerial hijackings)” were recorded.19 Data from the Global Terrorism Database, which classifies hostage-taking incidents into hijacking, barricades and kidnappings, gives the figure of 4,700 in the category of kidnappings from 1970 to 2010.20 16. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has recorded kidnapping rates in some 112 countries and territories across the globe, based on police-recorded offences.21 It should be noted that such data neither establish a distinction between terrorist and non-terrorist kidnappings nor dedicate particular attention to the phenomenon of kidnapping for ransom. Furthermore, the data may not necessarily reflect the real extent of the phenomenon, owing to, among other things, underreporting. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 6 See also ibid., para. 28. Joseph J. Easson and Alex P. Schmid, “250-Plus Academic, Governmental and Intergovernmental Definitions of Terrorism” in A. P. Schmid (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research (Routledge, London/New York, 2011), pp. 99–157. Ibid., pp. 5–7. Scott E. Atkinson et al., “Terrorism in a Bargaining Framework”, Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 30, No. 1,1987, pp. 1–2, containing data from the United States Department of State, International Terrorism: Hostage Seizures (1983). Patrick T. Brandt and Todd Sandler, “Hostage Taking: Understanding Terrorism Event Dynamics”, Journal of Policy Modeling, vol. 31, 2009, p. 762. For other figures, see Keith Bloomfield, “Hostage taking and government response”, RUSI Journal, vol. 146, No. 4, 2001, pp. 23–27. See www.start.umd.edu/gtd/about/. See “Kidnapping at the national level, number of police-recorded offences”, available from www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Crime-statistics/Kidnapping.xls and www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/CTS12_Kidnapping.xls.