Special Rapporteur on Torture warns cruelty is becoming the enemy of peace in Gaza, and calls for release of hostages
Press releases
Special Procedures
08 August 2025
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.
Alice Jill Edwards is the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.
Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/
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