Hostage Aid Worldwide calls for the international definition of Diplomatic Hostage

Innocent individuals continue to be used as collateral by an increasing number of rogue regimes in their negotiations with other Countries. The international community must act jointly and decisively to challenge hostage diplomacy. Those governments, institutions, groups and individuals that engage in hostage diplomacy must be held to account.

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2022 The past six years have seen an escalation of state and non-state sponsored hostage taking which sadly shows no sign of abating. In fact the situation has dramatically worsened in recent weeks and threatens the norms of international diplomacy. Negotiated resolutions have meanwhile encouraged hard liners to embrace hostage taking as a general strategy to pursue a broad spectrum of extortion goals. Prominent and current examples include the unjust imprisonment and death sentence imposed on Ahmadreza Djalali in Iran in retaliation for the arrest of Hamid Nouri in Sweden; the imposition of death sentences on captured dual national or foreign citizens aiding the Ukrainian people against the Russian invasion; the wrongful detention of Brittney Griner in Russia which came during an inflamed standoff between Russia and the U.S over the invasion of the Ukraine; the prolonged detainment of Paul Whelan, former U.S marine in Russia on trumped up espionage charges; the kidnapping of U.S engineer Mark Frerichs in Afghanistan and the list goes on to include many other hostages and wrongful detainees in various countries such as Iran, China, Venezuela, and Syria.

Hostage Aid Worldwide is calling for the establishment of an International Treaty that makes a common definition of a recognized status of "Diplomatic Hostage". This is needed given the growing prevalence of state hostage taking and the inability of the 1979 International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages to fully address this scourge. Under a new Convention, all states parties would undertake to prevent, prohibit and act collectively to respond effectively to incidents of hostage diplomacy involving the nationals and permanent residents of states parties and to impose sanctions against any offending country.

Nizar Zakka, president of HAW and himself a prior hostage said “Unless the world stands unified in the face of hostage takers, this situation will continue to spread around the world, as it is proving to be an effective tool to extort concessions from individual countries”