France filed a lawsuit against Iran at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday, seeking the release of two detained French nationals.
The two individuals, a modern literature teacher named Cécile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris, were detained by the Islamic Republic of Iran on May 8, 2022, while visiting the country as tourists. They have been in detention as “state hostages” ever since. The lawsuit condemns Iran’s hostage-taking policy, which targets French nationals traveling to or residing in Iran, accusing them of offenses related to Iranian national security.
France alleges that the policy is implemented primarily to coerce the country into handing over terrorists to Iran as a precondition for the release of the detained French nationals. France asserts that this is evident from Paris’ message to his daughter, in which he informed her that he had been instructed to convey Iran’s willingness to release them in exchange for the extradition of terrorists to Iran. According to the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages 1979, hostage taking is defined as the act of seizing or detaining individuals and threatening to harm them to compel a State to do or abstain from doing something as an “explicit or implicit” condition for their release.
Additionally, the lawsuit seeks a declaration from the ICJ that Iran has violated its obligations under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Rights 1963(VCCR) by failing to promptly notify France of the detention of its nationals. The violations include Iran’s failure to allow French consular officers to visit and communicate with the detainees and to arrange legal representation for them. Article 36 of VCCR specifically guarantees the right of states to provide effective consular protection for their nationals and to ensure that individual rights are protected.
France further claims that even though it had contacted Iranian authorities on May 11, 2022, to request information regarding the disappearance of Cécile and Paris, Iran only officially confirmed their detention on June 18, 2022. Moreover, despite numerous attempts made by France, the “systematic policy of obstruction by Iran” resulted in only four brief consular visits with the two detainees over the course of more than 1,100 days of detention.
The lawsuit follows a warning issued in March by UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Alice Jill Edwards, who highlighted the increasing practice of hostage taking in certain countries, including Iran, “with hostages being used as unwitting bargaining chips in international relations.” She also noted that victims of such practices are often left with lifelong trauma due to physical and psychological torture, including prolonged solitary confinement.
