Non-State Hostage Taking
13
October 2021 — 5:00PM TO 6:00PM
Anonymous (not verified)
9 July 2021
Online

Challenges, dilemmas and practical solutions

Kidnapping has long been used as a tactic by criminals, pirates, separatist groups and terrorists to generate income, publicity or political concessions: the Shining Path in Peru, FARC in Colombia, pirates off the coast of Somalia, criminal gangs in Nigeria, and terrorists, such as ISIS and Al Qaeda, across the Middle East.

Our panel will investigate, analyse and discuss questions including: what is the nature and scale of non-state kidnapping globally? What works in tackling these cases? What are the key differences in response between criminal and terrorist cases? Is the outlawing of ransom payments – such as is being considered currently by Nigeria – effective? What can we learn from other countries that have tried this, such as Colombia and Italy? Can governments learn from the market in kidnap and ransom insurance, which apparently has greater rates of return for lower ransom payments? Are the UK and US right to stand firm in their “no concessions” stance to terrorists, when other countries pay behind the scenes? Why have international efforts at a unified approach been so unsuccessful? Does the answer lie elsewhere, in efforts to tackle corruption and build more effective policing and security forces?

Source: Chathamhouse Events