Hostage International

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Hostage International, formerly Hostage UK, is a charity which aims to support the families of hostages and former hostages by providing emotional and practical care both during and after kidnap. Hostage International primarily assists individuals affected by a kidnap or illegal detention outside their home country.

Contents

Origins

Hostage International was the brain child of Terry Waite, the humanitarian author and former hostage of the Islamic Jihad Organisation and Carlo Laurenzi. Terry had a personal and very public kidnapping in Lebanon and was held for five years. Carlo, whilst head of the NGO, Prisoners Abroad, became acutely aware of the lack of provision for families of detainees and the absence of help for returnees. In 2003 Terry and Carlo met for the first time and agreed to establish a new and independent entity to support families of kidnap victims. Having put together a shadow board of trustees and supporters, Hostage UK was officially launched in the Palace of Westminster in 2004. In 2014 Hostage UK’s work was recognised by the UK government when the then director Rachel Briggs was appointed an OBE in recognition of the charity's work. [1]

Goals and aims

Hostage International has three primary aims:

1.     To provide emotional and practical support to hostages and their families during and after a kidnap incident and to facilitate their access to specialist services;

2.     To promote best practice in hostage and family support by employers and governments through our education programme; and

3.     To ensure the needs of hostages and their families are considered in the development of relevant private and public policy.

While the organisation does not endorse the payment of ransoms, [2] it takes a non-judgemental approach to those families that do chose to take this option. In addition to the production of reports and guides, [3] Hostage International occasionally makes public statements regarding issues which affect hostages and their families, such as their 2013 criticism of Facebook for allowing beheading videos on the social network.

High profile cases

In operation since 2004, [4] Hostage International has dealt with some high-profile cases including those of David Haines [5] and Peter Moore. David Haines’ family asked well-wishers to donate to the charity instead of sending flowers. [6] [7] [8]

Many former hostages and family members of hostages work with the charity. These include Phil Bigley, the brother of murdered former hostage Kenneth Bigley, [9] former hostages Judith Tebbutt, [10] Peter Rudge [11] and Ana Diamond.

Related Research Articles

Humanitarian aid workers belonging to United Nations organisations, PVOs / NGOs or the Red Cross / Red Crescent have traditionally enjoyed both international legal protection, and de facto immunity from attack by belligerent parties. However, ' attacks on humanitarian workers have occasionally occurred, and become more frequent since the 1990s and 2000s. In 2017, the Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD) documented 139 humanitarian workers killed in intentional attacks out of the estimated global population of 569,700 workers. In every year since 2013, more than 100 humanitarian workers were killed. This is attributed to a number of factors, including the increasing number of humanitarian workers deployed, the increasingly unstable environments in which they work, and the erosion of the perception of neutrality and independence. In 2012 road travel was seen to be the most dangerous context, with kidnappings of aid workers quadrupling in the last decade, reaching more aid workers victims than any other form of attack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Marshall Johnson Jr.</span>

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A beheading video is a form of propaganda or snuff video in which hostages are graphically decapitated. It is often employed by groups seeking to instill shock or terror into a population. Although beheading has been a widely employed public execution method since the ancient Greeks and Romans, videos of this type only began to arise in 2002 with the beheading of Daniel Pearl and the growth of the Internet in the Information Age, which allowed groups to anonymously publish these videos for public consumption. The beheadings shown in these videos are usually not performed in a "classical" method – decapitating a victim quickly with a blow from a sword or axe – but by the relatively slow and torturous process of slicing and sawing the victim's neck, while still alive, with a knife. Despite the number of groups and ideologies that employ this form of propaganda, the process is overwhelmingly associated with Islamist extremists.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jihadi John</span> Kuwaiti-British militant and ISIL executioner (1988–2015)

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References

  1. ↑ Honours for the best of Britain overseas, 30 December 2013, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/honours-for-the-best-of-britain-overseas
  2. ↑ Raymond Whitaker, When the life of a hostage lies in their hands, Sunday 06 July 2008, The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/when-the-life-of-a-hostage-lies-in-their-hands-860888.html
  3. ↑ "Partner Organisations | Rory Peck Trust | Rory Peck Trust". rorypecktrust.org. Archived from the original on 2014-10-08.
  4. ↑ CASE STUDY REPORT, Hostage UK, CounterExtremism.Org, Last accessed 03/10/2014 https://www.counterextremism.org/resources/details/id/470/hostage-u.k.
  5. ↑ JAMIE BUCHAN, Memorial service for murdered hostage David Haines to be held in Perth, The Courier, 30 September 2014 "Memorial service for murdered hostage David Haines to be held in Perth - Perth & Kinross / Local / News / The Courier". Archived from the original on 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2014-10-06.
  6. ↑ Perth memorial to be held for aid worker David Haines, BBC News, 30 September 2014, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-29427889
  7. ↑ Sally Hind, David Haines: Family of murdered aid worker ask wellwishers to donate to charity that supported them through his abduction, Daily Record, Sep 25, 2014, http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/david-haines-family-murdered-aid-4320596
  8. ↑ David Haines: Family of murdered aid worker ask wellwishers to donate to charity that supported them through his abduction, http://www.newsrt.co.uk/news/david-haines-family-of-murdered-aid-worker-ask-wellwishers-to-donate-to-charity-that-supported-them-through-his-abduction-2643087.html
  9. ↑ Colin Adwent, Ipswich: Brother of murdered hostage Ken Bigley speaks of distress over “inhumanity” of IS beheadings Wednesday, EADT24, September 17, 2014 http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/ipswich_brother_of_murdered_hostage_ken_bigley_speaks_of_distress_over_inhumanity_of_is_beheadings_1_3773410
  10. ↑ Dan Damon, Judith Tebbutt: My six months held hostage by Somali pirates, 26 July 2013, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23453120
  11. ↑ Embassy hostages kidnapped in Ethiopia released, Guardian, Tuesday 13 March 2007, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/13/foreignpolicy.ethiopia
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