GENEVA - The Special Rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, repeats her urgent calls for the unconditional and immediate release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, after videos and photographs of emaciated hostages were released over the weekend.
"Cruelty is being used as psychological warfare, with devastating consequences for individuals, families, societies and for peace," said the expert. "This war more than most is also being fought in the public arena of the media with images of suffering hitting our screens every day," she said.
"Today I am reminding not only Hamas and other armed groups, but also anyone who is harbouring the hostages, that aiding and abetting hostage-taking is an international crime," the expert said. "Anyone involved must be held to account for their involvement in a court of law."
"I further appeal to all States with influence to help break the stalemate over ceasefire negotiations, for international observers to be given immediate access to every person who is being held hostage or detained, and for the parties to this awful conflict to put down their arms and negotiate, once and for all, a comprehensive peace settlement", Edwards said.
"If anyone was immune to the cruelty being inflicted on the hostages, these latest videos should be proof enough", Edwards said.
The Special Rapporteur has raised these and other allegations of torture and ill-treatment with the parties to the conflict on multiple occasions. She repeats her calls for the urgent expansion of humanitarian aid into Gaza, an end of hostilities and a peaceful settlement based on the two-State model, the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages and the release of all arbitrarily detained Palestinians, and for independent investigations into all alleged crimes.
In March this year the Special Rapporteur published a report on the international crime of hostage-taking as torture, which comprehensively examined many hostage-taking situations worldwide. Among other recommendations she called on the Secretary General to appoint a hostage envoy to represent hostages and their families.
