UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Calls on States to End the ‘Cruel Game’ of Hostage-Taking
In a report on the crime of hostage-taking, presented to the UN Human Rights Council on 4 March, Dr Alice Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, echoes REDRESS’s long-standing position that hostage-taking can often amount to torture.
“Hostage-taking is cruelty – plain and simple – and almost always involves torture,” Dr Edwards said. “It inflicts severe physical and psychological suffering on both hostages and their families.”
The UN expert urges the international community to take immediate action to end this inhumane practice, hold perpetrators accountable, secure the release of hostages and provide full support to victims and their families.
REDRESS contributed evidence to the report, shedding light on the devastating impact of State hostage-taking on survivors and their families. The report calls for the recognition of hostage-taking as a form of torture and urges the international community to act decisively to prevent all forms of hostage-taking by holding perpetrators accountable through mechanisms like universal jurisdiction and Magnitsky sanctions.
It also supports REDRESS’s call for States to officially recognise arbitrary detention for leverage as hostage-taking and create national teams specifically tasked with managing these cases.
A Rising Global Threat
Drawing on evidence from REDRESS, the report highlights an alarming rise in certain States detaining foreign nationals arbitrarily on fabricated or exaggerated charges to advance their political, financial or military goals.
The expert identified States such as China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela as being involved in these politically motivated detentions.
By manipulating justice systems and exploiting procedural mechanisms, these States delay or block the release of detainees’, while denying their status as hostages or wrongful detainees’. In most cases, hostages endure severe physical or psychological torture as their captors attempt to secure ‘the best possible deal’.
The report describes this situation as a ‘cruel game’, where individuals are used as pawns in strained inter-State relations. It calls on the international community to urgently address this crisis, including by categorising such violations as torture or, in the most serious cases, crimes against humanity.
REDRESS strongly supports this call, having long advocated for global recognition of State hostage-taking as a systemic practice that causes profound suffering, involves significant State complicity and cynically uses victims as bargaining chips in international negotiations.
The Critical Role of Consular Assistance
The report also stresses the importance of consular assistance for survivors and their families during their detention and after their release. Hostages often face ‘unspeakable’ conditions, including prolonged solitary confinement and deprivation of necessities such as food, water, light, clean air and communication with the outside world.
These harsh conditions lead to long-term physical and psychological harm, making effective support and communication from home States essential.
As noted in the report, hostages often feel abandoned by their governments when consular services are denied, which only intensifies their isolation and suffering. Meanwhile, family members experience psychological trauma, including chronic anxiety, often worsened by government demands for silence on their loved ones’ cases.
REDRESS has consistently called for the UK to establish a legal right to consular assistance and to create a dedicated Government team to manage cases of State hostage-taking. REDRESS welcomes the Special Rapporteur’s recommendation for stronger support frameworks, including the appointment of specialised hostage envoys and the adoption of specific consular assistance guidelines. These recommendations align with REDRESS’s ongoing efforts to ensure the UK Government honours its manifesto pledge to “strengthen support for British nationals abroad” by introducing “a new right to consular assistance in cases of human rights violations”.
A Call for Accountability
REDRESS has legally represented individuals impacted by arbitrary detention and State hostage-taking, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian charity worker who was arbitrarily detained and tortured in Iran between 2016 and 2022, and her husband Richard Ratcliffe.
REDRESS has long advocated that Magnitsky sanctions are a critical tool in challenging State hostage-taking, as they send a message that this practice will not be tolerated as diplomatic leverage. Since 2021, REDRESS, together with the Free Nazanin Campaign and survivors of State hostage-taking in Iran, has submitted evidence to governments in the UK, US, EU, Canada and Australia, seeking Magnitsky sanctions against 20 perpetrators involved in Iran’s practice of hostage-taking. However, these efforts have yet to yield meaningful action.
The report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture also urges States to endorse the Canada Declaration against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations and to use Magnitsky sanctions, among other measures, to hold perpetrators accountable.
REDRESS has also contributed evidence to several inquiries, including the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee’s investigations into Iran and the UK’s handling of State hostage situations, as well as the recent Australian Senate Inquiry into State hostage-taking.
The release of the Special Rapporteur’s report is an opportunity for States to reconsider their approach to holding perpetrators accountable and to take concrete steps to end the prevailing impunity that currently protects them.
Photo by: UN Photo/ Loey Felipe