Held hostage by a foreign state: Independent International Panel recommends measures for states in its report

A report of the Independent International Panel on Arbitrary detention in State-to-State Relations was published in New York on 28 October. Ambassador Marja Lehto served as the Vice-Chair of the Panel.

The report of the Independent International Panel, established by Canada, discusses arbitrary detention in state-to-state relations as a serious human rights violation, an international crime and a violation of the fundamental rules of interaction between states.

Arbitrary detention in state-to-state relations refers to a situation where a person visiting a foreign state or studying or working there is detained under fabricated charges and released only after their home state has agreed to a given concession.

Journalists, aid workers, researchers, business travellers and human rights defenders, for example, are often targeted by arbitrary detention.

This is the first comprehensive legal study examining the phenomenon of the new millennium in which authoritarian states take citizens of Western countries or dual citizens hostage.

The report contains operational recommendations for states and international organisations. The recommendations concern, among other things, measures for more consistently condemning the phenomenon, the right of victims to receive assistance and compensation, and means of holding accountable states that use arbitrary detention in state-to-state relations as a policy tool.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen considers that the Panel's report is a significant breakthrough and stresses that arbitrary detention in state-to-state relations is a serious violation of international law. It constitutes an abuse of the criminal jurisdiction of a state and violates the rights of both the detainee and their home state.

The Independent International Panel was convened by the Government of Canada, and it consisted of six top experts in international law from all over the world. The Panel was chaired by Professor Charles C. Jalloh from Sierra Leone, and Ambassador Marja Lehto served as the Vice-Chair of the Panel. The other members of the Panel came from Chile, the Republic of Korea, Pakistan and the United States.

Finland has previously signed the 2021 Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations, which has more than 80 signatories.