Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Conclusion 3
Sixth Report - Stolen years: combatting state hostage diplomacy
Published 4 Apr 2023
Paragraph 16
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Foreign Affairs Committee The FCDO’s approach to state level hostage situations All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The FCDO has a policy of not commenting on, or interfering with, a foreign state’s legal system. Evidence suggests that the existence of an opinion from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that a British national is illegally detained makes little or no tangible difference to the way the FCDO approaches resolving that case. This is counterproductive and risks undermining an important tool, as well as the Government’s commitment to a Rules-Based International Order based solution for ending this practice.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, Sixth Report - Stolen years: combatting state hostage diplomacy (HC 166), paragraph 16, 4 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 6 July 2023 (deadline 4 June 2023).