On 18 June 2024, the ASPI DC team was delighted to welcome Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert for a roundtable discussion on the wrongful detention of foreign citizens for political leverage and hostage diplomacy.

A political scientist specializing in Islam and the Middle East, Dr. Moore-Gilbert is the author of The Uncaged Sky: My 804 Days in an Iranian Prison, a bestselling memoir detailing her experience being wrongfully imprisoned in Iran from 2018 until 2020. She served over two years of a ten-year sentence based on falsified charges, before being freed in a prisoner exchange deal negotiated by the Australian government.

During the discussion, Dr. Moore-Gilbert highlighted the Axis of Upheaval's rising use of hostages for diplomatic leverage, the absence of mechanisms to guarantee the freedom and safety of hostages, and the need for greater advocacy for victims and protection of human rights.