Memorandum submitted by Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship has recorded and reported
on threats to freedom of expression worldwide since 1972. Though
it has an international brief, it is published by a British educational
charity charged with furthering an understanding of the basic
human right to expression and the obligations of individuals and
states to guarantee that basic right.
This has led us at times to criticise British
government policy in a number of areas of domestic policy. We
have criticised, for instance, the unnecessary dilution of Labour
party commitments to a freedom of information act, as well as
changes in legislation that have threatened basic rights in Britain
since the attacks on the US in September 2001.
One of our arguments is that these strategies
send a contradictory message—"do as we say, not as
we do"—to nations upon which the British government
itself urges change. These criticisms are addressed to those responsible
for the government's positions at home. We would like to thank
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for defining
the government's position internationally, for making its own
positions clear, in the pages of its Human Rights annual report.
We welcome the report and its clear statements
by the FCO on human rights issues at global, regional and national
level and, more importantly, on specific, individual cases, documented
in its pages in painstaking detail.
The report is a welcome commitment to establishing
standards for the provision of human rights on the part of the
FCO. Government policies may change now and in the future, but
the stance of the FCO in 2002-03 is permanently recorded by the
report, for the benefit of its allies and critics alike.
This may not be welcomed by those in government
who advocate a more pragmatic approach to foreign relations and
human rights abuses. However, we believe most human rights organisations,
and Index on Censorship, as a magazine of free expression, in
particular, will welcome the report for its transparency and its
contribution to an informed and balanced debate.
(This said, it should be noted that the report
is diplomatically measured on certain issues. For example, an
otherwise detailed comment on the situation of human rights situation
in Uzbekistan in the report does not refer to the dispute between
the US and UK ambassadors to Tashkent over the latter's critical
view of human rights abuses there and the former's apparent desire
to placate Uzbekistan, an ally in the US-led conflict war in Afghanistan.
However the report does reprint, later, separately and without
comment, the brave groundbreaking speech by UK ambassador Craig
Murray that triggered the dispute in the first place.)
In summary though, the Human Rights report is
an excellent reference and an essential declaration of principle
on the part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. We happily
commend it to our readers and supporters.
With regard to our opinion of the FCO's wider
human rights strategy, we recognise the imaginative and forward
thinking attitudes of the department as seen in both private and
public explorations of government human rights policy. We commend
the Human Rights Policy Department (HRPD) for its willingness
to consult and listen to human rights NGOs and advocacy groups,
and its willingness to pass those views on to other government
departments, with or without its endorsement.
Special credit is also due to the administrators
of the HRPD's Human Rights Programmes Fund. They have demonstrated
a flexibility in the face of rapidly changing situations and a
willingness to consider alternative proposals that simply cannot
be matched by any institutional donor anywhere in Britain or worldwide.
Index on Censorship's innovative programmes
of monitoring, analysis, training and publication in Iraq would
not be possible without this kind of open-mindedness and adaptability.
It is a severe loss to the human rights and
free expression community in Britain and in many other countries
that this fund's responsibilities are to be absorbed this year
into a less focused programme dedicated to the much more amorphous
area of global opportunities.
Ursula Owen OBE
Editor-in-Chief
Index on Censorship
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