Travel Reference
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rising, involving millions of the world's population on a daily basis, govern-
ments and interested parties in the transportation industry need to work to
streamline security checks at various entry and departure points to ensure
the safety of travellers, while not compromising human rights.
Tourists: Safety while on holiday
In a related development, tourists' safety while on holiday is becoming a
major human rights concern in some tourist destinations in the world. Lately,
there have been several reported cases of tourist abductions and killings in
different tourist destinations. Those tourists are often kidnapped for ransom,
political negotiations, sexual assault, robbery, organ harvesting, human traf-
ficking or prostitution. Some of these cases prompt governments to issue
travel alerts and warnings to their citizens to take extreme safety measures
when vacationing in some parts of the world. The abduction and killing of
David Tebbutt and the kidnapping of his wife Judith Tebbutt from Britain
while on vacation in Kenya (BBC News, 2011a), the kidnapping and subse-
quent killing of 20 male Mexican tourists while on vacation in Mexico
(believed to have been mistaken for a rival drug cartel) (Fox News, 2011), and
the 23 August 2010 Manila (Philippine) hostage taking of a tour bus that
claimed the lives of at least seven foreign nationals and wounded many
others (BBC News, 2010) are a few examples that illustrate the growing
security threats both local and foreign tourists face while on vacation. Every
state is obliged under international law to provide maximum security and
protection for people within its territory, including nationals and non-
nationals. Incidences such as kidnappings and killings are clear violations of
Article 3 of the UNUDHR (1948), and Articles 6 (1) and 9 (1) of the ICCPR
(1966), which enshrine the rights to life and protection. Similarly, child
abduction while on holiday is another disquieting issue. Although many
child abduction cases in holiday destinations are parental abductions, there
are cases where children were abducted by strangers or disappeared while
they were on holiday with family members. A notable case was the disap-
pearance of a British girl named Madeleine McCann from a holiday apart-
ment in Portugal in 2007, the investigation of which has been recently
reviewed (Evans, 2013). Children are abducted for the same reasons as adults,
as well as for illegal adoption, child labour, recruitment for criminal gangs or
as child soldiers, or murder (ABP World Group Ltd., n.d.; Hague Conference
on Private International Law, n.d.).
Terrorist attacks on tourist establishments and transportation networks,
as mentioned earlier, are an increasing concern. In many cases, terrorist
attacks target tourism establishments, as targeting these sites causes the
news to spread more easily worldwide. Having various tourist nationalities
involved, their claims and demands will have a wider audience. To illustrate,
terrorist attacks at luxurious hotels in Mumbai, India, in 2008 killed over
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