Written evidence submitted by Amnesty
International
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S
ANNUAL REPORT
2005
Many congratulations on your appointment as
Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Our annual report, which is enclosed, documents
the state of the world's human rights and covers the period from
January to December 2004. As Chair of the G8 and president of
the EU, the UK is in a unique position this year to challenge
some of the abuses, which we highlight in this report.
Over the next Parliament we will be looking
for your support to press the UK Government to:
— turn its verbal support for an international
arms trade treaty into concrete action. The UK should set out
its strategy for engaging with international partners on building
support for a treaty. The Prime Minister has already identified
Africa as one of his priorities for this year. Making progress
on an international arms trade treaty will do much to alleviate
suffering in that continent;
— become a signatory to the European
Convention against trafficking in human beings, which opened for
signatures in May. Trafficking is a violation of human rights
and an offence to human dignity and integrity. The Convention
requires those states which become parties to take measures, individually
and collectively, to prevent trafficking, to prosecute those responsible
for trafficking and to take specific measures to protect and respect
the rights of trafficked persons;
— ensure that it resists all efforts
to water down the absolute ban on torture and cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment. At every opportunity the UK Government should
be making clear unequivocally that it will not rely on, or present
"evidence" obtained through torture; and
— push for radical reform of the UN's
human rights machinery. The UN Secretary General has taken the
bold initiative and proposed that human rights be given greater
prominence within the UN. It is crucial that the UK Government
supports this reform in order to improve the UN's effectiveness
in promoting and protecting all human rights.
As well as the issues highlighted above Amnesty
International UK will be aiming to protect human rights in a range
of countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),
Sudan, Turkey, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Territories, India
and Colombia.
We look forward to working with the Committee
in the future, particularly on its inquiry into the FCO's annual
human rights report and other inquiries related to our work. We
would encourage the Committee to consider looking particularly
at the human rights situation in the DRC and Colombia. The conflict
in the DRC has claimed an estimated four million lives since 1998
and in many ways is the forgotten conflict in Africa. Even though
peace agreements have been signed, conflict still continues in
the eastern part of the country claiming lives daily and contributing
to a dire human rights situation. The UK Government has a key
role to place in ensuring that peace and stability is instituted
throughout the DRC and it would be useful for the Committee to
probe further into this issue.
The armed conflict in Colombia has resulted
in the deaths of over 70,000 people in the last 20 years and resulted
in more than three million internally displaced people—one
of the highest rates of displacement in the world. The conflict
is characterised by a flagrant disregard for human rights and
international humanitarian law by all sides. There are well-established
links between paramilitary groups and the State, and elements
within the Armed Forces continue to carry out extra judicial executions,
torture and violations of due process, and impunity is widespread.
Yet, the UK provides large amounts of financial and military support
to the Colombian Government, with little or no analysis of its
impact. We believe that this support requires detailed scrutiny.
Maniza Ntekim
Parliamentary Officer
Amnesty International
25 July 2005
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