The FCO and Human Rights
4. The FCO's Human Rights Annual Reports present
a valuable opportunity for this Committee and others to assess
the Government's record on human rights. Amnesty International
UK praises the report as "comprehensive", providing
a "thorough overview of the Government's work to protect
and promote human rights worldwide".[2]
Human Rights Watch notes that the report sets a "useful standard"
that groups such as itself can use in assessing how the Government
addresses human rights abuses around the world.[3]
Although both these organisations expressed serious concerns about
specific aspects of the Government's approach to human rights,
concerns that we often share, we agree with them that the FCO
should be praised for its achievement in producing useful and
insightful reports year after year.
5. This year's report from the FCO, published on
26 March 2008, represents an advance on previous efforts.[4]
It is more concise and easier to use. The terms of reference of
the report have also been changed so that it covers, and will
continue to cover in future editions, a full calendar year. In
our report last year, we recommended to the Government that work
in support of human rights should be fully integrated into its
then ten foreign policy strategic priorities.[5]
The Government has since developed the FCO's strategy, leading
to the publication of four new policy goals. They are:
- Counter terrorism, weapons
proliferation and their causes;
- Promote a low-carbon, high-growth global economy;
- Prevent and resolve conflict; and
- Develop effective international institutions.
This year's report contains a substantial section
that explores how human rights concerns interact with, and in
many cases are integral to the advancement of, these four goals.[6]
We welcome this.
6. The promotion of human rights is only one amongst
several of the Government's international aims: it is not the
only agenda item when Ministers meet with their counterparts abroad.
The Government's objectives are bound, from time to time, to come
into conflict. Human Rights Watch notes that the FCO report "helpfully
highlights some of the dilemmas" faced by Ministers when
seeking to promote human rights. It encourages the Government
to be more explicit about when such circumstances arise, for instance
when human rights policy may conflict with energy security or
commercial relations. It argues: "Many of these dilemmas
are real. But it is only by setting out them out clearly that
one can deal with them and devise strategies to align interests
more closely with ethics".[7]
We wholeheartedly agree.
7. In previous years, we have noted our concern that
the Minister responsible for human rights at the FCO also held
responsibilities for trade. We argued that these two roles would
"sometimes stand in sharp contradiction". However, our
criticisms were rejected by the Government.[8]
In appointing a number of new Ministers to his Government in June
2007, the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, altered the
responsibilities of a range of Ministerial positions. Lord Malloch-Brown,
the former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, became
a Minister of State at the FCO, with responsibility for, inter
alia, Africa, Asia, the United Nations and human rights. Lord
Jones of Birmingham, the former head of the Confederation of Business
Industry, was appointed Minister of State for Trade and Investment
at both the FCO and the Department for Business, Enterprise, and
Regulatory Reform, thus ensuring that different Ministers took
responsibility for human rights and trade.[9]
We welcome this change.
8. We conclude that the new allocation of Ministerial
responsibilities within the FCO is to be welcomed and that it
will allow the Government to pursue its human rights agenda more
effectively. We further conclude that the Human Rights Annual
Report 2007 is an improvement on its predecessors in its accessibility.
Key Human Rights Themes
9. The FCO report includes a section on its work
promoting women's rights. It argues that the "promotion
and protection of women's rights is mainstreamed throughout UK
government policy", and notes that the Government's work
is guided by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).[10]
It refers to work that is being carried out, including the development
of indicators on violence against women. It also notes the role
of the FCO's Global Opportunities Fund in supporting projects
aimed at tackling violations of the rights of women, including
in Colombia, Turkey and the Ukraine. However, in its submission
to this inquiry, Amnesty International UK expressed concern at
"the absence of a serious and integrated approach to gender
issues in both the policy goals and the report; a separate section
on women's rights is insufficient."[11]
We asked Kate Allen, the Director of the organisation, about this
when she appeared before us. She argued:
We do not see a comprehensive approach to tackling
women's human rights by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. We
know that that happens in some projects and in some embassies,
but it does not happen consistently and it is not included in
country strategies or in policy generally. […] Gender issues
need to be mainstreamed within foreign policy […].[12]
The FCO stated that "the promotion of all human
rights - including women's rights - and good governance are, and
will remain a vital part of this Government's international agenda.
The new policy goals do not downgrade their importance".[13]
10. The protection of children's rights is
also of paramount concern. Violations of the rights of children
can range from forced labour to being recruited as child soldiers
or suffering genital mutilation. The increased use of the Internet
has also left children more vulnerable to sexual abuse. Amnesty
International's submission notes violations of children's rights
in various countries, including Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and
Colombia.[14] The FCO
notes that it "developed a strategy on child rights"
in September 2007. This strategy is designed to "take action
on specific issues of violence against children, including the
worst forms of child labour, children in conflict with the law
and children affected by armed conflict". It will "guide
posts on activities they can take to achieve FCO objectives on
child rights". The report provides some examples of the FCO's
work on child rights issues, for instance by monitoring the implementation
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Brazil.[15]
11. The FCO report sets out in some detail the work
of the Government in promoting democracy around the world.
It refers to action taken to advance freedom of expression, freedom
of religion and the role of human rights defenders in various
key countries. For instance, the FCO has supported a project in
Nigeria aimed at supporting the adoption of a Freedom of Information
Bill. With regards to human rights defenders, the FCO notes its
raising of the case of Chen Guangcheng with the Chinese authorities.
He was sentenced for four years and three months for "obstructing
traffic and deliberately damaging public property".[16]
In its submission, Human Rights Watch argues that when considering
the relationship between the Government's development assistance
programmes and democracy, the FCO report should "address
the dilemmas" that are faced when providing financial aid
to regimes that practice human rights abuses.[17]
In its section on democracy, the FCO does not refer to the important
role that free trade unions and a free media can play in the process
of democratic advancement.
12. We recommend that the Government should ensure
that the key issues of women's rights, children's rights and the
promotion of democracy are given greater prominence in next year's
edition of the FCO report. We further recommend that the report
should set out clearly how these three issues have been factored
in to the Government's overall strategy towards individual countries
of concern. We also recommend that it should bring out the important
role of free trade unions and a free media in the promotion of
democracy.
1 Ev 1 Back
2
Ev 1 Back
3
Ev 21 Back
4
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Human Rights Annual Report
2007, Cm 7340, March 2008 Back
5
Foreign Affairs Committee, Third Report of Session 2006-07, Human
Rights Annual Report 2006, HC 269, para 11 Back
6
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Human Rights Annual Report
2007, Cm 7340, March 2008, pp 10-80 Back
7
Ev 21 Back
8
Foreign Affairs Committee, Third Report of Session 2006-07, Human
Rights Annual Report 2006, HC 269, para 8 Back
9
www.fco.gov.uk Back
10
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Human Rights Annual Report
2007, Cm 7340, March 2008, p 97 Back
11
Ev 1 Back
12
Q 16 Back
13
Ev 66 Back
14
Ev 13-20 Back
15
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Human Rights Annual Report
2007, Cm 7340, March 2008, p 97 Back
16
Ibid, pp 100-115 Back
17
Ev 24 Back
