House of Commons - Foreign Affairs - Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence

APPENDIX 9

Memorandum submitted by the British Council

INTRODUCTION

1. The purpose of this Memorandum is to complement the evidence of the FCO to the Foreign Affairs Committee in relation to its Annual Report on Human Rights, by providing further information about the British Council's work in human rights.

2. This memorandum gives an overview of new Council initiatives and includes an Appendix of the Council's work in human rights since our detailed submission to the FAC in March this year.

THE BRITISH COUNCIL ROLE IN HUMAN RIGHTS

3. The British Council supports overseas partners who are working to improve standards of governance and to promote human rights. We concentrate especially on governmental legitimacy and accountability, the rule of law, the role of the media, the development and effectiveness of civil society, and the rights of women and children.

4. The Council works with all parts of society including governments, academic institutions, civil society and international organisations. The Council is however, a people-to-people organisation which is ideally placed to influence a wider section of the population in other countries than can be done through government-to-government contacts. The Council therefore complements the UK diplomatic effort at the governmental level.

5. The FCO Annual Report acknowledges the work of the British Council as an increasingly important means of promoting human rights world-wide. The Annual Report refers to many of the Council's projects that are funded by the FCO Human Rights Project Fund. The attached Appendix provides an overview of a wider range of the Council's work in human rights.

OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE A GREATER IMPACT

6. The Council is already performing a major role in promoting human rights world-wide and is ideally placed to increase this role in relation to its work with all sections of civil society. However, the Council does not have the resources to take forward the major initiatives that would greatly increase the impact of the UK on human rights world-wide. These constraints on the Council's financial resources are set out in the March report to the FAC.

7. The following paragraphs outline a range of new initiatives that would increase the Council's contribution to implementing the Governments's human rights policies world-wide, with more funding. These initiatives will enable the Council to make strategic investments that are in line with our core objectives and that reflect FCO priorities.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

8. This initiative will develop a global programme to share the UK experience of human rights and citizenship education. The preparations for the introduction of the Human Rights Act, the developments from the Crick Report and the expertise in providing human rights education at degree level are all valuable experiences that other countries are keen to know more about. The global programme will include a co-ordinated range of events and activities to develop human rights and citizenship education between 2000 and 2004. These events and activities will include:

— international, regional and national conferences highlighting achievements of the first half of the UN decade of human rights education and providing a forum for developing a strategy for the second half of the UN decade;

— parallel youth seminars to develop children and young people's understanding of the issues;

— cultural events including drama, film, radio and arts;

— the publication of effective ideas from regional and international events.

THE GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS NETWORK

9. The Council is currently developing an electronic network to link the major players in human rights in the UK including government, academic institutions and civil society organisations. The purpose of the network is to increase the impact of human rights work by sharing information and experience and co-ordinating activities. With additional resources, the Council will expand this network to have a global dimension, linking human rights organisations around the world. This initiative will include:

— assisting human rights organisations to have access to the internet;

— assisting in the design of their web-pages; and

— development of translation facilities and English language skills so that there is the widest possible access to human rights information and experience.

HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL

10. This initiative aims to promote greater awareness of human rights by bringing together contemporary UK films exploring human rights. This collection of UK films will tour British Council directorates around the world and will be shown in parallel with local human rights films in bilateral film festivals. The film festival will be linked with a series of human rights events and exhititions that draw out the UK experience and resource of human rights films and film-making. These events will include:

— Workshops led by UK and local film directors and human rights practitioners.

— Special events for children and young people.

— The development of a practical training module for media and human rights film-makers; and

— The use of films in British Council English teaching Centres.

11. These initiatives are additional to those detailed in our March submission to the FAC including:

— Expanding Human rights in Accession States.

— Communicating Human Rights.

— Developing Human Rights Commissions.

— Developing a Conflict Resolution Network.

— Working with parliamentarians and Political Parties for Accountability and Local Democracy.

— Information and NGO Resource Centres; and

— Staff Strengthening.

BRITISH COUNCIL WORK IN HUMAN RIGHTS 1999

ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE

In Bulgaria, in co-operation with UN High Commission for Refugees and the Bulgarian Police Academy, the Council held a four day seminar on best practice in dealing with immigration and asylum seekers.

In Croatia, the Council:

— Held a major book exhibition on Governance and human rights in the Croatian Parliament and National Library; and

— Developed an academic link between the South Bank University and the University of Zagreb on human rights in European law.

In France, the Council:

— Launched "Les Rendez-Vous Constitutionnels", a project that examines constitutional change in the UK by using the format of a BBC Question Time programme. This has included an event on Lords reform that relates in current aspects of senate reform in France;

— Held a seminar for legal and administrative specialists from France and the UK to explore national approaches to legal practice and procedure in immigration and asylum cases; and

— Held the first public lecture in the series "Les Rendez-Vous Juridiques" which brings prominent speakers from the UK judiciary to speak on current legal issues.

In Germany, the Council:

— Organised a conference on "European Women in Law" which looked at key issues facing women lawyers within their profession and issues facing women generally in the way the law deals with violence against women in other European countries.

In Hungary, the Council:

— Donated human rights books to the Human Rights Documentation Centre; and

— Held a seminar, on "How to bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights" in co-operation with the London-based British-Hungarian Law Association and the Hungarian National Council of Justice.

In Ireland, the Council:

— Organised a public lecture on human rights by the Chair of the British Council, Baroness Helena Kennedy.

In Kazakhstan, the Council:

— The Council began a programme to train the police in dealing with domestic violence.

In Russia, the Council:

— Supported work to develop the training curricula for prison staff in collaboration with King's College London, International Centre of Prison Studies and two Ministry of Interior Institutes;

— Worked with the FCO and DfID to develop a human rights strategy for Russia.

In Turkey, the Council:

— Developed a project on an "Interagency Approach to Prevent Domestic Violence" that involves police officers, medical doctors and lawyers in workshops in Diyarbakir and Trabzon;

— Organised English Language Training for human rights lawyers in Diyarbakir;

— Collaborated on the Police Complaints Authority Project that supports a government study to establish an independent authority for police accountability in Turkey. This authority will replace the existing internal complaints department of the Turkish National Police Organisation;

— Developed the Police Training Project to raise the awareness of British police methods in areas of work where there have been complaints of human rights abuses;

— Organised the Citizens Advice Bureaux Research Project that has involved research on where to go for legal advice in Ankara. The research has been published as a directory and will be launched at a forthcoming seminar of local legal advice organisations to further facilitate networking and co-ordination in the sector.

In Ukraine, the Council:

— Commissioned a visit to Ukraine from a member of staff in India to advise on a project to support the establishment of self-help-groups for female sex workers in 11 cities in Ukraine;

— Held professional updating seminars for library and information staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Training Institute to develop skills in the sources and uses of human rights information in law enforcement training;

— Launched a project to strengthen civil society within Ukraine by enabling it to respond more positively to transition;

— Established two further NGO centres in Donetsk and Kharkiv. The existing centres in Lviv and Odessa were established last year. All four centres, funded by the FCO Human Rights Project Fund, provide NGOs with basic office facilities, access to the internet, human rights information, meeting space, and training;

— Held training seminars in advocacy and public awareness raising on human rights issues in the Council's regional British Centres for Civic Initiatives in Lviv and Odessa. These seminars provided support for more than 50 NGOs working in the field of human rights;

— Launched the Chevening Millennium Human Rights Scholarships in partnership with the University of Nottingham; and

— Held a Good Government conference in Kyiv which brough together academics from the fields of law, law enforcement, public administration and the media, to consider how higher education can contribute to the development of democracy in the Ukraine.

ACTIVITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

In Jordan, the Council:

— Designed and managed a project to increase the awareness of children's human rights among the public in Jordan. The project involved a survey to measure the existing knowledge andpractices relevant to child rights; an awareness campaign designed to reach all sectors of Jordanian society using different media channels; and a child rights media campaign; and

— Held a regional conference on "Children's Right and Realities" that enabled 250 experts from Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan to discuss critical issues facing Arab children. The conference successfully managed to integrate information dissemination and information gathering activities, networking, identification of country-specific problems, and concluded its sessions with Regional and National action plans.

In Morocco, the Council:

— Held a workshop with the London School of Economics on designing research methods on violence against women.

In the West Bank & Gaza, the Council;

— Designed and managed the second year of the Palestinian Rights Programme aimed at assisting Palestinians achieve their human rights. This included the development of a Palestinian Children's Charter; an accompanying public awareness campaign focusing on the Convention of the Rights of the Child; a series of workshops centred on democratising education; a Human Rights edition of the widely circulated Palestine-Israel Journal; and assistance in drafting child protection legislation for submission to the Palestinian Legislative Council;

— Held a series of workshops for 20 human rights NGOs to develop their skills in website design and maintenance so that by the end of the course, each NGO had their new websites hosted on the British Council's PRP website which was runner up in the One World Best International Media Awards;

— Managed the Gender and Law Project which involves the establishment of a new Masters Programme in Gender, Law and Development with Birzeit University's Women's Studies Programme and the Birzeit University Law Centre, the first of its kind in the region;

— Held workshops for 40 Palestinian community organisers from cities, villages and refugee camps across the West Bank and Gaza on Islamic, international and human rights legislation to combine legal knowledge with local insight, emerging with a platform of legal justifications for gender equity, tailored to respond to local concerns;

— Assisted in the establishment of a women's rights NGO, "Al Mashriqiyat";

— Hosted a roundtable discussion on Equal Opportunities in Policy and Law for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) which led to the recommendation that a Women's Unit be established within the Palestinian Legislative Council;

— Designed and managed the Equal Opportunities Project which includes facilitating dialogue between the Ministry of Education, Curriculum Development Centre, and the Teacher Creativity Centre, to discuss strategies for including democracy and human rights issues in the national curriculum with a special focus on gender and disability; and

— Supported a 2 day seminar to facilitate discussions between the state and human rights NGOs as a result of increased tension and mistrust resulting from proposed changes in legislation relating to the registration of NGOs.

In Saudi Arabia, the Council:

— Managed the Joint Supervision Programme at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah which enables women to earn PhDs from UK universities by distance. This initiative facilitates women's access to education as women are unable to travel without husbands or male relatives. The aim is to develop the first generation of Saudi female academics.

In Yemen, the Council:

— Ran two judicial training courses in human rights.

ACTIVITIES IN SOUTH AMERICA

In Argentina, the Council:

— Participated in a national conference on children's rights and organised a linked exhibition.

In Brazil, the Council:

— Held the seminar "Human Rights and Citizenship: Democracy in Debate" following up from the 1998 British Brazilian Law Week, and which examined the political and social systems of both countries in maintaining the rights of their citizens;

— Opened the first dedicated Human Rights Library to support the Human Rights Diploma run by the Universities of Brasilia and Essex;

— Developed a community legal advice project in a favela in Rio de Janeiro.

In Mexico, the Council:

— Held a children's story writing competition on children's rights and the author of the winning story won a trip to the UK. A TV script was commissioned on the selected story;

— Developed a link between the University of Portsmouth and Universidad Iberoamericana for an arts and development project to raise children's awareness of their rights; and

— Held a seminar "Towards Gender Equity" in collaboration with the Mexican National Commission for Women focusing on legislation with a gender perspective and violence against women.

In Peru, the Council:

— Managed a project that produced 104 radio programmes promoting human rights with a linked series of training seminars and workshops to increase the skills and awareness of journalists in the human rights field;

— Supported the development of an extranet system for human rights NGOs in Peru to improve their communication systems and to enhance their work of surveillance of the human rights situation in Peru; and

— Funded an access to justice project for rural justice administration that aims to resolve conflicts that are not dealt with by the formal legal system.

ACTIVITIES IN AFRICA

In Ghana, the Council:

— Supported a project to promote women's legal literacy through radio;

— Assisted with the publication of a human rights handbook for young people for use in youth clubs and civic education projects in schools in collaboration with the Ghana Committee on Human and People's Rights. The Ghana Ministry of Education and the Commission for Children now use it in their education programmes.

— Managed a major project to document the extent and incidence of violence against women and children, in collaboration with local and international agencies. The Council provided training to researchers from the community based NGOs that carried out research in every area of Ghana. The Council also facilitated sharing of experience and best practice with UK organisations. Later phases of the project will focus on lobbying and the establishment of victim support networks.

In Kenya the Council:

— Supported a Legal Aid Conference in collaboration with the Kenyan Attorney General's office which brought together stakeholders from the judiciary, academia and the law-based NGOs. The conference was convened as a brainstorming forum that would lead the way to the establishment of a legal aid scheme in Kenya by looking at comparative experiences from England and Wales, the USA, South Africa and Zambia; and

— Supported two women lawyers to attend the UN Committee on Status of Women session in New York to give a statement on the Kenyan situation.

In Malawi, the Council:

— Managed a project to clear the backlog of homicide cases by improving the efficiency of the criminal justice process;

— Developed a Case Management Database project to facilitate the development of a computer database that will collect, collate and analyse information about accused persons and cases; and

— Organised the training of Lay Ministers and the development of a training of trainers course, with associated course materials.

In Mauritius, the Council:

— Funded a paintings, poster and book exhibition on "Children have Rights" accompanied by workshops on children's rights issues that brought together professionals and NGOs working on children' rights.

In Mozambique, the Council:

— Arranged for a survey of capacity in the Judicial Sector; and

— Developed a training course for government ministers in human rights policy formulation.

In Nigeria, the Council:

— Has had a long-standing programme of work in the law. However, until May 1999 when there was the official hand-over from a military to a civilian government, the human rights work has been characterised by relatively low-key support to human rights activists and certain organisations committed to the rule of law and the upholding of basic human rights for all. This work has included:

— Support for the West African Human Rights Forum, a vehicle for increasing co-operation between NGOs and National Human Rights Commissions in the region;

— A human rights education project that supports an education and research centre in Lagos to provide basic human rights education to the public. A series of one-day seminars have been held in law faculties around the country publicising international human rights conventions and the African Charter. Materials on human rights issues have also been produced.

— A workshop to promote women in public life that focused on taking the opportunities offered by the present democratic transition programme to review all legislative and political practices which limit the rights of women and obstruct their rights to vote and be voted for. Over 80 participants attended including women politicians, government officials and NGOs.

— Projects on prison reform, one involving the training of welfare officers in 20 states and the other carrying out systematic survey of prison conditions and number of inmates in order to make recommendations for releases and improvements. As a result, 600 prisoners released (mainly prisoners waiting trial).

— A project to improve the efficiency of court procedures that deals with the backlog of cases to be tried and the high numbers of inmates on remand. A pilot project in Lagos State, that involved a human rights law practice, the local Bar Association and the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies looked at ways of improving the situation through a system of case-flow management, alternative methods of sentencing and improvement of the administration of cases. This pilot project led to an overall review and recommendations for a thorough overhaul using as a basis some of the UK access to justice reforms.

— The commemoration of UN Day for the Victims of Torture by a exhibition/craft fair of handicraft made by ex-prisoners on rehabilitation programmes.

— Support for a visit by On-Line Action to advise and help develop an action plan for Human Rights NGOs to enable them to develop web-sites.

In South Africa the Council:

— Supported a project to raise children's awareness of human rights through a "safe Schools" project;

— Assisted a project to set up a pan-African human rights network; and

— Organised training for the Inter-African Network for Human Rights and Development in Zambia to build staff information skills.

In the Sudan, the Council:

— Has developed a series of materials in Arabic to raise the human rights awareness of young people. These include a leaflet giving a general introduction, a booklet explaining human rights in more detail and a book of cartoons on human rights.

In Tanzania, the Council:

— In conjunction with the British High Commission and the Commonwealth Press Union, organised a Regional Human Rights Reporting Seminar in Dar-es-Salaam to encourage sensitive reporting of human rights, to address media issues from a women's rights perspective and to assess the importance of the media in the promotion and protection of human rights. The seminar provided the opportunity for journalists from 6 countries in Africa to share experiences and to make contacts.

In Uganda, the Council:

— Facilitated an academic link between University of Warwick, the School of Oriental & African Studies and Makerere University to develop gender awareness and expertise within the Judiciary. There has been a baseline survey on the current level of gender sensitivity and the awareness and application of human rights concepts by the Ugandan Judiciary.

In Zambia, the Council:

— Organized a conference to facilitate the formulation of a national action plan for human rights;

— Supported a study visit to the UK to assist the Zambian Investigator General (Ombudsman) to develop a strategic management plan;

— Organised a workshop for street children to learn how song can be used complain about issues and confront the people who have the power to effect change. The children later gave a public performance at the Lusaka Playhouse; and

— Supported a series of weekly radio programmes on human rights and good governance, covering workers rights, the rights of refugees, children's rights in armed conflict and the right to adequate standards of living for health and well-being.

In Zimbabwe, the Council:

— Supported a Higher Education Link between the University of Zimbabwe and University of Kent that focuses on collaborative research into the Zimbabwe and UK criminal justice systems' treatment of victims, witnesses and perpetrators of domestic violence and child abuse. The link also seeks to develop short courses for use by legal practitioners on the contribution that psychology can make to all areas of the criminal justice system;

— Assisted with the establishment of a confidential, free, multilingual helpline for children in collaboration with the UK organisation, Childline; and

— Supported a visit to Zimbabwe by the Law and Human Rights Consultant to work with Council staff and Zimbawean human rights organisations in the design of a three year human rights strategy and programme of action.

ACTIVITIES IN EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC

In Australia, the Council:

Montage

In China, the Council:

— Supported a series of legal visits ranging from a delegation from the Chinese Supreme People's Procuratorate to see how the system of criminal justice works in the UK; academics looking at the magistracy and judiciary in the UK; staff from the Polic University to make a training film about the UK system of justice; to journalists from Beijing TV. Many of these visits follow up from the links made at last year's British-China Law Week;

— Supported a visit by the Council's Gender Consultant as part of the EU delegation to China for the first EU/China seminar on women's human rights;

— Organised a review of Chinese legislation on the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women;

— Participated in a UK meeting of key players in Sino-British legal relations to discuss legal reform in China;

— Sponsored the showing of 50 episodes of "The Bill" on Beijing TV to raise awareness of the criminal justice system in the UK; and

— Assisted with a visit to China by the Lord Chancellor and an accompanying legal delegation.

In Malaysia, the Council:

Directory of British Council work in Law and Human Rights.

In the Philippines, the Council:

— Supported a Higher Education Link on Human Rights, Poverty and Development between Ateneo Human Rights Centre and University of Warwick, School of Law. This link was recently marked by a seminar at Warwick University on "International Developments on Children's Rights" and aims to encourage the introduction of a wider range of academic courses both at the undergraduate and post graduate level at Ateneo and Warwick. The courses will be in the field of human rights and development and, more particularly, in the areas of gender and law, child law, law and development and clinical legal education.

In Taiwan, the Council:

— Organised a visit by UK academics to give a series of lectures on women's rights and to meet their counterparts and others working on women's rights.

ACTIVITIES IN SOUTH ASIA

In Bangladesh, the Council:

— Developed a higher education link between the Department of Law, University of East London and Dhaka University Department of Law on Women's Legal Rights. As a follow up to this link, a Women and Law Centre was established at the University of Dhaka to promote women's rights and human rights;

— Developed a project on public interest litigation in collaboration with Interights (the international law centre), which brought Indian lawyers to Dhaka to share experiences of public interest litigation;

— Supported a pilot project to train police in women's and children's rights;

— Organised a workshop in collaboration with the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs on "Access to Justice: Towards a People-friendly Legal System" to review existing trends and issues of people's access to formal justice delivery system;

— Funded a visit by 12 African lawyers to Dhaka in February 1999 to share ideas of promoting legal awareness and legal literacy with a special focus on women; and

— Organised a roundtable to promote greater understanding of UN human rights mechanisms and the problems and challenges in Bangladesh. The discussion focused on ratification of human rights conventions, the UN Human Rights reporting system, Human Rights Commissions, the role of the UN Special Rapporteur and the scope for intervention, and the role of Civil Society in the UN process.

In India, the Council:

— Developed an initiative to develop strategies in human rights education for the higher educaton sector. The Council ran two workshops for multi-disciplinary groups of academics and NGOs, at Bangalore and Delhi, to evolve strategies for curriculum development and teacher training for human rights education. This initiative led to development of a module on Human Rights Education, which could be used across the various subjects, and that would have special reference to children's rights and women's rights;

— Supported the Indo-British Training Project on Human Rights & Prisons Management: This project trained a group of 16 Indians through a study tour of the UK prisons and a "Training of Trainers" workshop in Delhi;

— Held a touring human rights books exhibition, with a poster exhibition on "Women, Men, Democracy & Governance".

— Held a regional conference on child prostitution and trafficking, jointly organised by Council offices in Calcutta, Bangladesh and Nepal and attended by NGOs government organisations and key individuals from India, Bangladesh and Nepal;

— Organised a trainers' workshop on skills and reporting under the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), with special reference to violence against women. This enabled NGOs to make an in-depth study of CEDAW and to discuss the assessment criteria to be reviewed at the local level;

— Supported a training module on violence against women aimed at raising gender awareness amongst the police service and promoting networking amongst the Department of Women & Child Development, the Department of Justice, Supreme Court of India and the National Judicial Academy. This resulted in the Indo-British Training Project on Gender and Law which aims to build a core group of judges in key positions within Indian state jurisdictions to enhance their understanding of gender issues in the legal system and to develop their training skills. The training has been carried out in collaboration with the National Judicial Academy and the School of Law, University of Warwick. Forty-three judges have been trained so far and as a result have introduced changes in courtroom practice and gender training within their jurisdictions so that 400 additional judges have now been trained;

— Held workshops for children in Calcutta: one included a film show on children's rights for street children; another formed a forum for child-to-child interaction between children from affluent schools and girls rescued from brothels;

— Organised seminars on violence against women to raise awareness of the Zero Tolerance Campaign as part of Calcutta's international fortnight protesting violence against women;

— Held a series of workshops on a multi-agency approach to child protection where participants were drawn from the police, health and education services, law, social welfare service, NGOs and the media. At all venues it was the first occasion when groups from a range of professions discussed the problem of child sexual abuse in India; and

— Arranged Chevening Human Rights Scholarships enabling six students to study human rights at postgraduate level in the UK.

In Pakistan, the Council:

— Supported a project to introduce human rights into course curricula run by the Pakistan College of Law. This includes the introduction of human rights into the undergraduate law degree and a complete Human Rights module for the Masters LLM degree. The objective is to develop sustainable human rights education in Pakistan. The courses aim to provide an understanding of human rights law, including Islamic jurisprudence and international human rights;

— Held a symposium exploring the rights of women during pregnancy that brought together academics, policy makers, NGOs doctors, psychiatrists and lawyers from Pakistan and the UK;

— Organised a workshop on refuges for women in Islamic societies in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Social Welfare and Quaid-e-Azam University. The objectives of the workshop were to assess for refuges in Pakistan and to collect information to enable lobbying and advocacy for changes in the law and improvement of these services for women; and

— Supported a project to build capacity of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) which is a civil society organisation active throughout Pakistan in human rights. The Council has assisted HRCP to establish its documentation centre and to enhance its IT capability. A VSO volunteer who was an information specialist was identified by BC and placed at HRCP for three years to develop a Management Information System which is now up and running.