A/HRC/24/47 order, low-threat, and baths) to savage abuse at the hands of their captors”. 47 Yemen stands out as a rather peculiar case whereby, unlike most ransom kidnappings, “the tribesmen have basically used their victims as tools to pressure the Yemeni government for concessions, and many hostages have received very good treatment from their captors”. 48 Since a typical hostage-taking incident generally threatens not only the physical but also the psychological well-being and integrity of the hostage both throughout and after the duration of the incident,49 it generates multiple infringements of their human rights. In fact, owing to the interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights, most hostage-taking incidents amount to violations of numerous civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. 50 Depending on particular circumstances, the situation of persons taken into captivity by terrorist hostage-takers amounts to a violation of virtually every right listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant instruments.51 25. The enjoyment of the right to life, the right to liberty and security of person, the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the freedom of movement and residence, the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the freedom of opinion and expression, the freedom of assembly and association, the protection of privacy, family and home, the right to political participation, to work under favourable conditions, to rest and leisure, food, clothing and housing, participation in cultural life, health care and social services, education, the special protections for children and the social and international order needed to realize rights are either fundamentally violated or restricted.52 The gender dimension of the impact on victims of hostage-taking should also be considered, for both those taken as hostages and their families.53 26. It is contended that the psychological impact of being taken hostage is similar to other terrorist, and more generally traumatic, experiences. 54 Hostage-taking has a severe and sustained impact on children, many of whom display symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.55 Typically, adults taken hostages have the following reactions: (a) Cognitive: impaired memory and concentration; confusion and disorientation; intrusive thoughts and memories, denial (namely, that the event happened), hypervigilance and hyperarousal (a state of feeling too aroused, with a profound fear of another incident); (b) Emotional: shock and numbness, fear and anxiety, helplessness and hopelessness, dissociation (feeling numb and “switched off” emotionally), anger (at anybody – perpetrators, themselves and the authorities), anhedonia (loss of pleasure in doing that which was previously pleasurable), depression (a reaction to loss) and guilt (for example, at having survived if others died, and for being taken hostage); 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 10 Richard P. Wright, Kidnap for Ransom: Resolving the Unthinkable (Boca Raton, CRC Press, 2009), p. 48. Ibid., p. 27. Ellen Giebels, Sigrid Noelanders and Geert Vervaeke, “The Hostage Experience: Implications for Negotiation Strategies”, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 241–253. See A/HRC/12/22. Including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. For the exact formulation of these rights, see the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arts. 3–28. See A/HRC/19/38, para.10. David A. Alexander and Susan Klein, “Kidnapping and hostage-taking: a review of effects, coping and resilience”, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 102, No. 1, 2009, p. 17. Ibid., p. 18.