APPENDIX 1
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE UPDATE
TO FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE REPORTS
SESSION 1998-99
FIRST REPORT: FOREIGN POLICY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Recommendation 9
We recommend that assistance continue to
be provided to enable the work of the International Criminal Tribunals
in The Hague and in Arusha to be carried out as swiftly and effectively
as possible. While acknowledging the operational difficulties,
we are deeply concerned that individuals indicted for war crimes
in the former Yugoslavia remain at large. We urge that the Government
with its international partners redoubles its efforts to bring
those concerned to justice. (Paragraph 99)
29. The Government strongly supports the
work of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) and continues to take a robust approach to the detention
of war crimes suspects. Since March this year, a further three
indictees have been arrested by SFOR troops in Bosnia, including
one by UK SFOR troops. This brings the total of SFOR detentions
to 21, of which UK SFOR troops were involved in 12. This summer
the UK has again provided British Scenes of Crime Teams to help
ICTY gather evidence of atrocities in Kosovo. The Government continues
to supply ICTY with substantial amounts of information, including
intelligence material, to assist in the successful prosecution
of those responsible for war crimes. This is in addition to the
other significant voluntary assistance we provide to the Tribunal.
Recommendation 22
We recommend that the Government uses its
best endeavours to encourage the development of courts similar
to the European Court of Human Rights in other regions of the
world. (Paragraph 119)
30. The Organisation of African Unity (OAU)
adopted a protocol to establish an African Court of Human and
People's Rights at the OAU summit at Ouagadougou in 1998. So far
35 OAU member states have signed the protocol and four have ratified
it. Fifteen instruments of ratification must be deposited with
the OAU for the protocol to come into force. Only after this has
happened can the OAU decide on operational questions such as the
location of the court and the election of judges. We strongly
support the establishment of this regional court, which would
uphold the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples's
Rights. We stand ready to provide appropriate support to the Court
once the protocol establishing it comes into force, and we are
exploring with the OAU Secretariat ways in which we can encourage
wider ratification of the Protocol. In the meantime, the FCO's
Human Rights Project Fund is supporting a project with the NGO
Article 19 to work with the African Commission on Human and People's
Rights to promote freedom of expression. (The African Commission
is the body which presently has prime responsibility for supervising
the implementation of the African Charter.)
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