One of our key aims is to work discreetly to encourage governments and employers to adopt policies and practices in family and post-release which take into account the family and former hostage perspectives.
As a leading charity in this area and with many years of experience of supporting individuals and families affected by hostage situations, we are able to share our expertise to collaborate with or to inform a variety of institutions – including governments, the media, security forums and think tanks – around hostage affairs.
In 2024, we fed into a number of governmental initiatives looking at arbitrary detention and/or kidnappings, including:
Canada: We were invited to give evidence to the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on Bill C-353.
Australia: We gave written and oral evidence to the Australian Senate Inquiry into the wrongful detention of Australian citizens overseas.
UK: The team attended the launch and subsequent meetings of the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Arbitrary Detention and Hostage Affairs.
International: We made a contribution to the report being drafted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, in support of classifying hostage-taking as a form of torture.
UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee:
In 2022 Hostage International was invited to provide written evidence from Hostage International to the Foreign Affairs Committee on the FCDO’s approach to state level hostage situations. We also attended meetings to provide support to families.
UK Office of the Public Guardian:
In 2018 and 2019 we collaborated with the UK’s Office of the Public Guardian, to help to ensure that procedures aimed at helping families of missing people to access and manage their loved one’s affairs were also available to the families of hostages and detainees. The relevant legislation is in the Guardian (Missing Persons) Act 2017 and UK families may wish to consult the Code of Practice (2019). Read our blog on this Act ‘Claudia’s Law’.
We can now offer support in countries working on similar legislation around missing people to share our knowledge in this area.
Media support:
In 2014, graphic images of the murders of the hostages held by Islamic State in Syria were published by some news organisations and on social media platforms. This issue was widespread and caused unnecessary anguish to affected families. At the request of one family, our trustee, Phil Bigley, wrote an open letter to news editors urging them to remove the imagery. ‘An open letter to journalists: no more images of James Foley’s murder’ was published by The Guardian on 27 August 2014.
We continue to contact news and media organisations where triggering or inappropriate images or stories are published.
Earlier advocacy:
In 2017, we were invited to contribute to a round table discussion at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) about ransom policies in kidnap cases. The discussion helped to inform the paper Closing the Gap: Assessing Responses to Terrorist- Related Kidnap-for-Ransom.While Hostage International does not comment on the rights or wrongs of ransom policies, we highlighted the emotional difficulties that ransom policies pose for families experiencing the kidnap of their loved one.