International human rights protection and kidnapping. What news? : an exploration into the duties and responsibilities towards the victims of kidnapping in the light of the cases of Margaret Hassan and Arjan Erkel

Abstract

Kidnapping of foreigners, among them NGO staff, has experienced an increasing proliferation in different areas of the world. The victims find themselves entangled in complex relationships with their environment. This reality gives rise to examine the protection of individual rights in these situations in order to shed some light on duties and responsibilities towards the victims. Thereby this thesis takes on a legal point of view but combines the approach with a descriptive method rooted in social sciences. This enables me to take account of the phenomenon as a legal problem without neglecting its complexity. In addition, the efficacy of contemporary international rights protection will become apparent due to a comparison between legal theory and reality.