Policy brief: the crime of hostage-taking: an agenda to end State-sponsored torture

In her recent report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment: hostage-taking as torture (2025), the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture examined both State and non-State hostage-taking. In this policy brief key sections of the report are extracted, elaborating on the Special Rapporteur’s legal and policy recommendations. The first section explains the distinctions between State versus non-State hostage-taking, before moving to the rationale of why she argues that hostage-taking is a form of torture with reference in particular to the physical, psychological and at times sexual wounds inflicted on hostages, families and broader society. The final section outlines her agenda to end State-sponsored torture in the form of hostage-taking with a series of recommendations on how to combat State hostage-taking and what support should be provided to hostages and their families. This policy brief includes new developments since the report was published.