Canada – Policy Magazine, October 22, 2024

The commodification of innocent human beings as leverage in bilateral conflict has become both more frequent in recent years and more prominent in recent headlines. With the ongoing crisis of un-returned Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, the return in August of hostages detained by Russia to the United States and the case of the “two Michaels” having drawn global attention to the contradictory notion of “hostage diplomacy”, the problem has become a major human-rights preoccupation.

At the 2024 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Hostage Aid Worldwide and our Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights concluded High-Level Week by convening a groundbreaking global forum on countering hostage-taking.

World leaders joined with hostage families and international human rights organizations at this official UN side event to help put an end to the rising global hostage-taking crisis.

The gathering was opened by Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Honourable Mélanie Joly and hosted by Canada’s Ambassador to the UN and newly elected President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Bob Rae. This landmark forum built on Canada’s international leadership in combatting hostage-taking, and its initiative against arbitrary detention in state-to-state relations and associated declaration, endorsed by nearly 80 states.

Importantly, the UN side event formally filled a gap in this initiative, in that hostage-taking by non-state actors was previously left unaddressed, and which facilitated a loophole whereby states could use proxies to take captives and advance their interests through arbitrary detention.

World leaders reaffirmed the international norms prohibiting hostage-taking, whether perpetrated by a state or non-state actor, and that human beings can never be used as pawns in geopolitical strategies or as leverage in negotiations. As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres put it in his keynote remarks to the side event, “[w]e must be very clear, to take hostages is absolutely intolerant. It is a violation of international humanitarian law. But more than that, it is something absolutely unacceptable, from any point of view. And in all situations, hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally.”

Dozens of diplomats, legal and policy experts from around the world joined this major gathering, including the missions of Argentina, Albania, Canada, Czech Republic, DRC, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States, Zimbabwe, among others – and with civil society and victim groups from around the world including Lebanon, Syria, Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Indonesia, and Nigeria – representing every region internationally.

Canada was joined as host by co-sponsors the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Argentina, whose ambassadors to the UN also addressed the official side event on countering hostage-taking, calling for greater global coordination and action in combatting this crime.

Next steps for an action agenda were presented by participants, with a focus on collective and concrete action:

1. Establish an ad-hoc working group within the UN that engages member states to address current hostage cases and to work to free them immediately. This can form the basis of an action-oriented coalition, where states can more rapidly implement a range of measures including joint diplomatic, legal, and economic measures;

2. Champion the appointment by the UN secretary-general of a special UN envoy for hostage affairs. The full force of the UN as guarantor of the UN Charter and international law, and representative of all its member states, can be brought to bear to help secure the release of hostages and strengthen norms prohibiting the taking of captives;

3. Expand existing international tools, including the potential renewal of the 1979 International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages. This can include a monitoring and enforcement mechanism for the Convention, and an evaluation of its efficacy, which can be initiated via a UN General Assembly agenda item on the subject;

4. Facilitate an annual UN global hostage forum in partnership with stakeholders to continue to advance cooperation and implement sustainable strategies and frameworks to prevent and resolve hostage crises. An Arria-formula meeting of the UN Security Council on combatting hostage-taking can also be pursued;

5. Engage international bodies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to ensure hostages receive humanitarian support and visits as required under international law;

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