The treaty includes definitions of "hostage" and "hostage taking" and sets out the principle of aut dedere aut judicare: a party to the treaty must prosecute a hostage taker if no other state requests extradition for prosecution of the same crime.
[2] The creation of an anti-hostage-taking treaty was a project initiated by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1976.
[3] The convention was adopted on 17 December 1979 by the issuance of Resolution 34/1461 by the UN General Assembly.
The convention has 176 state parties, which includes 175 UN members plus Niue.
Other non-state-parties include the Holy See and the Cook Islands (though New Zealand's ratification states that it applies to the Cook Islands and Niue (but not Tokelau)).