Australia – The Interpreter, August 27, 2024
The dramatic 24-person prisoner swap between Russia, the United States and a number of other countries this month drew the world’s attention again to the vexing issue of so-called “hostage diplomacy” – that sadly growing phenomenon by which authoritarian regimes unjustly imprison foreigners for leverage.
Democratic countries, whose governments are held accountable over the fate of their citizens (and are thus seen as vulnerable because of it), are the usual targets of the practice. Russia’s role as a serial abductor is the current focus, but China, Iran, North Korea, Türkiye and Venezuela are also prolific perpetrators. The fate of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza conflict with Israel has also brought attention to the challenge.
Australia numbers among the countries whose citizens have been the victims of hostage diplomacy. I was one such hostage, in my case of the military regime in Myanmar. Kylie Moore-Gilbert and Cheng Lei were prominent hostages of Iran and China respectively. Together the three of us have formed the Australian Wrongfully and Arbitrarily Detained Alliance (AWADA) to draw attention to the scourge of hostage taking, and to contribute to the conversation on how countries such as Australia might respond to it.
In a mix of good timing as well as good planning, this conversation is about to be turned up a notch here via a Senate inquiry into the wrongful detention of Australians overseas. Chaired by Tasmanian Senator Claire Chandler, the inquiry is taking public submissions up to the end of this month.
The terms of reference for the hearings are broad, but the issues the inquiry needs to consider include:
- How to deter hostage diplomacy in the first place.
- How to secure the return of hostages as quickly as possible, while avoiding creating incentives for future hostage taking.
- How to appropriately classify Australians wrongfully detained (as distinct from citizens who do commit real crimes overseas).
- How to support hostages and their loved ones back home.
- How to insulate, to the extent possible, issues around hostage release from Australia’s broader strategic or diplomatic relations.
With no formal policy framework for responding to hostage diplomacy applying in Australia, the practices of other countries should be instructive to the Senate inquiry. The phenomenon is conspicuously global and of urgent concern to many countries.
The United States has declared the issue a “national emergency”. In 2015, it created the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA), which is devoted solely to the task of helping hostages and their families, in theory free from other concerns. SPEHA has been especially effective in its hostage/family support role, while it has enjoyed some success in securing the release of hostages from Venezuela and other places.
