About Us

Hostage Aid is a non-profit NGO 501(c)(3) that was recently established in September 2020 by a group of former hostages from around the world, families of hostages and subject matter experts, all of whom, based on their different personal experiences as well as suffering have banded together to fight for the release of hostages globally while aiming to prevent this inhumane act of hostage taking from occurring against other innocent people.

HAW will complement the great work that is being carried out by other important organizations that help and advocate for hostages. In addition to providing humanitarian relief and support to current and former hostages who were unlawfully detained, HAW is aiming to work closely with technology experts and different stakeholders to scientifically address the hostage taking “business model” by identifying ways to target different components of this model and disrupt its operation. This will be done by a state-of-the-art scientific and data-driven approach to state sponsored hostage taking which is being developed as a tool with an aim to put an end to hostage taking.

To this end, HAW is in the process of initiating a hostage tracking system powered by artificial intelligence that will assist governments struggling to deal with the global hostage crises and can be used as a significant tool to achieve tangible outcomes

History

How HAW came to be?

Several hostage victims and families of hostages kept meeting at different hostage events, always drawn together by the tragedy they share. Due to the increase in the number of foreigners taken hostage in different countries, the idea slowly arose of founding a non-partisan NGO focused on helping hostages and assisting the families navigate the unfamiliar landscape of governments, aid organizations, media, United Nations and a plethora of other issues that no one is prepared for…and HAW was established.

In addition to these important tasks, a motivating factor for forming HAW has been the development of processes for data sharing and extracting knowledge from data on past and current hostage cases with the ultimate goal of disrupting the hostage business model. HAW is a collective and collaborative effort comprising former hostages, families of former and current hostages, human rights activists, and subject-matter experts.

Read more ⟶

Mission

Hostage Aid’s mission is to assist hostage victims and their families by providing insights on their cases, coordination with governments & UN bodies, or a strategy to disrupt the hostage business model and the emerging threat of hostage diplomacy. This will be done by combining global advocacy with empirical data driven methods and extensive research.

Vision

Awareness

raise awareness in the global community on the increasing threat of hostage diplomacy

01

02

Unified Approach

create an international coordinated approach towards hostage taking and a unified front among governments against hostage diplomacy

Intelligence based approach

develop appropriate technology solutions including a universal hostage tracker to be used by governments and individuals

03

04

Business Model

analyze and disrupt the hostage taking business model

Accountability

make individuals and entities involved in hostage taking globally accountable for their actions

05

06

Coordinated Advocacy

assist in forming strategic responses and coordinated advocacy tailored to individual hostage cases

Vision

AWARENESS

raise awareness in the global community on the increasing threat of hostage diplomacy

01

UNIFIED APPROACH

create an international coordinated approach towards hostage taking and a unified front among governments against hostage diplomacy

02

INTELLIGENCE BASED APPROACH

develop appropriate technology solutions including a universal hostage tracker to be used by governments and individuals

03

BUSINESS MODEL

Analyze and disrupt the hostage taking business model

04

ACCOUNTABILITY

make individuals and entities involved in hostage taking globally accountable for their actions

05

COORDINATED ADVOCACY

Assist in forming strategic responses and coordinated advocacy tailored to individual hostage cases

06