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An organisation whose staff are held does not conduct a negotiation. It supports one, sets the limits within which one can happen, and manages everything else while it does. Confusing those roles is how negotiations fail.

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Who negotiates

In most cases the negotiation is conducted by a professional response consultancy retained by the organisation or by its insurer, sometimes alongside a state authority, and sometimes by the state alone where the organisation has no standing in the case. The organisation's role is different, and it is not optional. It holds the relationship with the family, it holds the decision on what the organisation will and will not authorise, it holds the employment position of the person being held, and it holds the information the negotiator needs.

The paper is clear that an organisation should not attempt to negotiate directly unless it has no alternative. Direct negotiation by an employer, conducted by people with no experience of it, routinely raises the price and lengthens the detention.

The principles that govern the negotiation

• Time is not the enemy. Most detentions of humanitarian staff end in release. The pressure to resolve quickly comes from the organisation, not from the situation, and it is the pressure that produces mistakes.
• Proof of life comes first. Before anything else is discussed, the organisation should have a means of establishing that the person is alive and, where possible, that they are being treated in a way the organisation can influence.
• One channel, one voice. All contact with the captors runs through the appointed channel. Parallel contacts by colleagues, family members, local staff or intermediaries damage the negotiation and can endanger the person held.
• Nothing is agreed in the first exchanges. Early concessions set the price for everything afterwards.
• The organisation's position is decided in advance. Whether a payment will be made, whether prisoners will be advocated for, whether a statement will be issued. A position taken during the negotiation is a position taken under duress.
• Publicity is a decision, not a default. Media attention can raise the value of the person held and can also, in some cases, protect them. The choice is made with advice and made once.

What the organisation has to run alongside

A detention lasting weeks or months requires an organisation to maintain several things at once. A single point of contact for the family, who knows as much as the organisation knows and does not have to press for it. Continued salary and, where relevant, the continuation of the person's contract and their position on return. Practical support for the family, including travel and money, without a claims process. Support for the rest of the team, including those who were present and those who were not. And a boundary on internal speculation: in every long detention, colleagues form theories about what the organisation is doing and those theories do damage.

The end

Release is not the end of the case. The days after release are medically and psychologically the most sensitive, and the organisation's arrangements for them should be in place before release rather than improvised after it. The person should be able to control what is said about them, to decide when they return to work and in what role, and to have support that continues for as long as it is needed. The organisation should conduct a review that establishes what happened and what should change, without turning the person into a case study in front of their colleagues.

Related

• Abduction and kidnapping: management and response
• Crisis management of a critical incident
• Family First: liaison and support during a crisis