Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Conclusion 33
Sixth Report - Stolen years: combatting state hostage diplomacy
Published 4 Apr 2023
Paragraph 99
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 arbitrary detention of UK nationals and their subsequent use in hostage diplomacy is a growing threat not only to the safety of individuals but also UK national security. A robust response and deterrence need to be developed to counter this. It is important that attempts to deter this practice in the future are decoupled from efforts to resolve current individual detentions. Although there may be a case for varying approaches to communication in individual cases, if the normalising of this tactic as a form of diplomacy is to be avoided the Government must be ready to use the strongest possible language to call-out serial abusers at a macro level, as they have done since 2019 with Iran.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, Sixth Report - Stolen years: combatting state hostage diplomacy (HC 166), paragraph 99, 4 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 6 July 2023 (deadline 4 June 2023).