Conclusions and Some Policy Recommendations

Abstract

The diplonappings—and how to deal with them—have raised several practical problems with both legal parameters and political repercussions. In order to examine the diplomatic kidnappings in a legal perspective, Chapters II, III, and IV have analyzed the relevant customs and principles of international law as well as the international conventions and treaties which apply to them. Thus, Chapter II attempted to define the nature of diplomatic inviolability and to identify some of its major legal perquisites; Chapter III examined state responsibility and the obligations of host governments for the protection and security of aliens in general and of diplomats in particular; and Chapter IV reviewed the legal status of political asylum, especially as it has evolved in Latin America, and the extent and limitations of extradition. Chapter I set the phenomenon of diplomatic kidnapping within the context of urban terrorism, while Chapters V, VI, and VII dealt with actual case studies of recent diplonappings and some of the policy problems created by them for the diplomats and governments concerned. It remains therefore for this section, Chapter VIII, to draw together the legal precepts and the political realities in an attempt to elicit from them some positive policy recommendations for future governmental action.