Obligations and Aspirations: FCO Human Rights Report 2008
Launch Of FCO Human Rights Report 2008
March 26th, 2009
Twelve years ago Robin Cook promised that “The Labour Government (would) put human rights at the heart of our foreign policy.” In the years that followed we have tripled our international development assistance, tightened the criteria for arms exports and championed international justice through the establishment of the ICC. Today the promotion of individual rights overseas has become an important part of policy development.
The annual reports – this is the 11th - help to ensure greater transparency and accountability in our efforts. They reflect the British public’s passion for justice. Despite the recession, people have donated a massive £65 million to Comic Relief this year and in 2008 the Fairtrade Foundation reported sales of fair trade products up 43 per cent.
The British people’s commitment to human rights is born from a sense of our history, of rights forged out of shared struggles, and on the belief that free societies offer the best prospects for long term stability and growth. Economic freedom is the best way to empower individuals to fight poverty and improve their own standard of living. Political freedom – and in particular effective democracy–is the best guarantee against political corruption and mismanagement. And as Kofi Annan said, “Humanity will not enjoy security without development, it will not enjoy development without security, and it will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.”
The Human Rights report is a clear and comprehensive survey of our own efforts; an honest account of the successes, the setbacks and the dilemmas.
It covers both obligations – with which we must comply – and aspirations – which we endeavour to advance. Centuries of common law combined with our international commitments - in particular the European Convention on Human Rights which this government incorporated directly into UK legislation in 1998 - dictate that there are certain obligations which this government must hold itself to. And equally there are certain obligations which have particular significance in the conduct of our international relations. We must apply, for instance, our obligations under international humanitarian law in armed conflicts in which we are involved. And acts of torture are prohibited under both international human rights and international humanitarian law.
The first responsibility for adhering to them falls to Minsters and senior civil servants. We need to enunciate our principles, translate them into policy, and ensure they are understood throughout our organisations. And we have a further responsibility: to ensure that serious complaints and allegations that people’s rights have not been upheld are investigated.
The PM last week underlined our unequivocal commitment to human rights in the context of the work of the security and intelligence services and the armed forces. He announced that the Government would make publicly available for the first time the guidance to intelligence officers and service personnel on detainee issues; second, that the Intelligence Services Commissioner would be invited to monitor compliance with the guidance; and third, that he had asked the Intelligence and Security Committee to consider any new developments since their 2005 Report on Detention and their 2007 Report on Rendition.
In addition to our obligations, the government has set out certain aspirations. There are many examples - our commitment to reduce poverty in Africa, our desire to promote the rights of women in the Arab world, or to encourage China to relax its restrictions on freedom of expression and religion.
Because our aspirations are truly universal, this report is rightly wide in scope. It focuses on the most pressing human rights situations – the countries about which we are most concerned.
In Zimbabwe the campaign of violence which the regime unleashed during last year’s elections compounded an already critical humanitarian situation. Independent observers verified 190 politically motivated deaths, documented over 5000 other injuries and reported that a massive 36,000 people were displaced. And over the summer, Mugabe's ban on NGO field operations meant more than 1 and a half million Zimbabweans were denied critical, life-saving support and food.
With the Nairobi Communique and then the Goma Accords, 2008 began with renewed hope for peace in the Eastern DRC. But then fighting broke out in late summer, sparking a new round of atrocities – including rape and summary executions – and displacing a further quarter of a million people. We have persistently encouraged DRC and Rwanda to work together to resolve the instability in the East and deal with illegal armed groups. There are signs that this is now starting to happen with recent joint military operations against the FDLR militia. But the risk of reprisal remains and hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in fear of disease and violence.
In Darfur, although the UN/AU mission has increased its presence, the pace of deployment is too slow. Over 2.7 million people are now in camps, unable to grow the food they need to feed their families, with no hope of employment and, given the security situation, little prospect of returning to their homes soon. Although the peace process has been inching forward, the Sudanese Government’s decision to expel 13 international humanitarian NGOs and revoke the licences of 3 local ones threatens to trigger a much deeper crisis.
After decades of misrule and the brutal crackdown following the Saffron protests in 2007, Cyclone Nargis struck Burma at its most vulnerable. Around 130,000 people died and thousands more were left homeless. The reluctance of the Burmese regime to allow humanitarian access left millions on the edge of survival. Thanks to the efforts of the international community, cooperation with the Burmese regime on the provision of aid has now improved. But the humanitarian situation across the country remains dire. And the military junta continues to deny Burmese citizens the most basic of civil and political rights - around 2,200 people, including Aung San Suu Kyi, are currently held as political prisoners.
In Tibet in 2008, we saw deep-seated social and economic tensions and the desire for autonomy spill over into violence. This led to a number of deaths of Tibetans and Han Chinese, and over 1000 arrests.
And the year ended with the Israeli offensive in Gaza. The proximate cause was the increase in rocket attacks into Israel aimed at innocent civilians. But the truth is that the conflict was a symptom of political failure – the failure to convert talk about a peace process into concrete and meaningful progress on the ground.
The offensive killed over 1,400 Palestinians, left many more injured and displaced, destroyed power, sewage and food distribution structures. And Hamas continued to fire rockets that reached further than ever inside Israel. We called for an immediate ceasefire from the outset and now are focused on the implementation of UK sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 1860, with its commitment to reopen crossings, tackle arms smuggling and restart the political drive for a two state solution.
This report considers in detail the human rights situation in each of these countries – and many others. But it also examines the FCO’s work on human rights in terms of three major themes: democracy, the rule of law and equal rights. These are the three pillars of a world in which human rights are not only respected but protected.
When 8 out of 10 people globally say they want to live in a democracy, I believe it is right to assert the universality of democratic values. Not only do we want the citizens of other countries to enjoy the rights and freedoms that we do. This country also has a direct interest in supporting global movements for democracy because democracies are more likely to respect human rights, more likely to support open trade, and less likely to go to war with each other.
This is why we have continued to work with and support the democratic government in Pakistan – a country that has for 60 years oscillated between military dictatorship and elected civilian government. It is why in Afghanistan, we have provided over £16m to support the Afghans to make the technical preparations needed for this year’s elections. And our commitment to democracy is also why, after a year of uncertainty in Bangladesh, we welcomed the elections there in December. They were widely acknowledged to have been free and fair and I hope that our funding for a new photo registration scheme helped to minimise electoral fraud.
But as much as we work to support democratic progress, we also need to be alive to the risk of countries slipping backwards. So in Russia in March we were explicit about our concerns over the limits on international observers and lack of equal media access in the run up to their Presidential Election. And we and our European partners were clear that the Iranian Parliamentary elections, also in March, in which over a third of prospective candidates were barred from standing, fell below international standards.
Freedom has always depended on rules and responsibilities as well as rights. If governments are unable or unwilling to deliver the most basic level of services to their people, to provide protection and security, or to ensure access to justice, human rights will have little tangible impact.
In too many countries the police and security services are to blame for human rights violations rather than to credit for their protection. After the post-election violence, the Kenyan police were accused of partiality, as well as shooting to kill, rape and looting. An independent report into the violence highlighted Kenya’s culture of impunity and called for a complete reform of the security forces. We are in discussions with the Minister for Internal Security to see how we can assist.
In the DRC we are helping build courts, purchase vehicles and train criminal justice officials. In Sudan we’re working with practitioners to reform criminal law and to train lawyers on international humanitarian, criminal and human rights law. And this year we are spending just over £29 million in Afghanistan, working with the Afghans and our international partners to build capacity in the justice and prison sectors.
The belief that all citizens have the right to be treated equally and fairly, with dignity and respect, is one of the most basic tenets of human rights. Although equal rights have a clear moral foundation, the arguments are also instrumental. By refusing women the right to work and to engage in politics, societies restrict not just their economic but also their social development. By denying children the right to an education and pushing them too early into the workplace, societies limit the potential of the entire nation. By marginalising or excluding a particular minority, governments fuel communal divisions and risk violence and conflict.
That is why we support community organisations and trade unions in civil society as well as governments, why we played a lead role in the development and passage of UNSCR 1820, a landmark UN resolution that addressed the issue of violence against women in conflict, and why although we were one of the first countries to recognise th state of Kosovo, we also work with the new Kosovan government to try to strengthen protections for Kosovan Serbs.
Our guiding thought in all our work has to be the importance and the dignity of individual human lives – of their stories and their hopes.
That is what struck me last April, on a visit to Peshawar, when I sat and talked with the relatives of some of those killed whilst attending political rallies in Pakistan. Their tragic losses had left them angry, but had not dimmed their belief in democracy. They all wanted their voices to be heard and they wanted the power to shape their lives and futures.
It was at the front of my mind again when last July I met Zimbabwean refugees at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg. These were the faces of human catastrophe. After years of poverty and repression under Mugabe these people had fled their homeland in desperation. Some of them had then been attacked by poor South Africans who said the refugees were stealing jobs and housing.
And one of my most poignant memories to my visit to Georgian refugee camp in August. I talked to one woman who had fled as Russian tanks rolled into her orchard. She hadn’t objected to the soldiers eating her peaches. But then they had started to destroy the trees.
It is these individual stories, not just of rights denied, but of lives and livelihoods destroyed, that lie at the heart of our work on human rights and that shape our foreign policy. It is the thoughts and the images of people’s personal suffering, and the desire to alleviate that suffering, that will be in my mind and, I know, those of my staff, as we continue our endeavours over the coming year.
Launch Of FCO Human Rights Report 2008
March 26th, 2009
Twelve years ago Robin Cook promised that “The Labour Government (would) put human rights at the heart of our foreign policy.” In the years that followed we have tripled our international development assistance, tightened the criteria for arms exports and championed international justice through the establishment of the ICC. Today the promotion of individual rights overseas has become an important part of policy development.
The annual reports – this is the 11th - help to ensure greater transparency and accountability in our efforts. They reflect the British public’s passion for justice. Despite the recession, people have donated a massive £65 million to Comic Relief this year and in 2008 the Fairtrade Foundation reported sales of fair trade products up 43 per cent.
The British people’s commitment to human rights is born from a sense of our history, of rights forged out of shared struggles, and on the belief that free societies offer the best prospects for long term stability and growth. Economic freedom is the best way to empower individuals to fight poverty and improve their own standard of living. Political freedom – and in particular effective democracy–is the best guarantee against political corruption and mismanagement. And as Kofi Annan said, “Humanity will not enjoy security without development, it will not enjoy development without security, and it will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.”
The Human Rights report is a clear and comprehensive survey of our own efforts; an honest account of the successes, the setbacks and the dilemmas.
It covers both obligations – with which we must comply – and aspirations – which we endeavour to advance. Centuries of common law combined with our international commitments - in particular the European Convention on Human Rights which this government incorporated directly into UK legislation in 1998 - dictate that there are certain obligations which this government must hold itself to. And equally there are certain obligations which have particular significance in the conduct of our international relations. We must apply, for instance, our obligations under international humanitarian law in armed conflicts in which we are involved. And acts of torture are prohibited under both international human rights and international humanitarian law.
The first responsibility for adhering to them falls to Minsters and senior civil servants. We need to enunciate our principles, translate them into policy, and ensure they are understood throughout our organisations. And we have a further responsibility: to ensure that serious complaints and allegations that people’s rights have not been upheld are investigated.
The PM last week underlined our unequivocal commitment to human rights in the context of the work of the security and intelligence services and the armed forces. He announced that the Government would make publicly available for the first time the guidance to intelligence officers and service personnel on detainee issues; second, that the Intelligence Services Commissioner would be invited to monitor compliance with the guidance; and third, that he had asked the Intelligence and Security Committee to consider any new developments since their 2005 Report on Detention and their 2007 Report on Rendition.
In addition to our obligations, the government has set out certain aspirations. There are many examples - our commitment to reduce poverty in Africa, our desire to promote the rights of women in the Arab world, or to encourage China to relax its restrictions on freedom of expression and religion.
Because our aspirations are truly universal, this report is rightly wide in scope. It focuses on the most pressing human rights situations – the countries about which we are most concerned.
In Zimbabwe the campaign of violence which the regime unleashed during last year’s elections compounded an already critical humanitarian situation. Independent observers verified 190 politically motivated deaths, documented over 5000 other injuries and reported that a massive 36,000 people were displaced. And over the summer, Mugabe's ban on NGO field operations meant more than 1 and a half million Zimbabweans were denied critical, life-saving support and food.
With the Nairobi Communique and then the Goma Accords, 2008 began with renewed hope for peace in the Eastern DRC. But then fighting broke out in late summer, sparking a new round of atrocities – including rape and summary executions – and displacing a further quarter of a million people. We have persistently encouraged DRC and Rwanda to work together to resolve the instability in the East and deal with illegal armed groups. There are signs that this is now starting to happen with recent joint military operations against the FDLR militia. But the risk of reprisal remains and hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in fear of disease and violence.
In Darfur, although the UN/AU mission has increased its presence, the pace of deployment is too slow. Over 2.7 million people are now in camps, unable to grow the food they need to feed their families, with no hope of employment and, given the security situation, little prospect of returning to their homes soon. Although the peace process has been inching forward, the Sudanese Government’s decision to expel 13 international humanitarian NGOs and revoke the licences of 3 local ones threatens to trigger a much deeper crisis.
After decades of misrule and the brutal crackdown following the Saffron protests in 2007, Cyclone Nargis struck Burma at its most vulnerable. Around 130,000 people died and thousands more were left homeless. The reluctance of the Burmese regime to allow humanitarian access left millions on the edge of survival. Thanks to the efforts of the international community, cooperation with the Burmese regime on the provision of aid has now improved. But the humanitarian situation across the country remains dire. And the military junta continues to deny Burmese citizens the most basic of civil and political rights - around 2,200 people, including Aung San Suu Kyi, are currently held as political prisoners.
In Tibet in 2008, we saw deep-seated social and economic tensions and the desire for autonomy spill over into violence. This led to a number of deaths of Tibetans and Han Chinese, and over 1000 arrests.
And the year ended with the Israeli offensive in Gaza. The proximate cause was the increase in rocket attacks into Israel aimed at innocent civilians. But the truth is that the conflict was a symptom of political failure – the failure to convert talk about a peace process into concrete and meaningful progress on the ground.
The offensive killed over 1,400 Palestinians, left many more injured and displaced, destroyed power, sewage and food distribution structures. And Hamas continued to fire rockets that reached further than ever inside Israel. We called for an immediate ceasefire from the outset and now are focused on the implementation of UK sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 1860, with its commitment to reopen crossings, tackle arms smuggling and restart the political drive for a two state solution.
This report considers in detail the human rights situation in each of these countries – and many others. But it also examines the FCO’s work on human rights in terms of three major themes: democracy, the rule of law and equal rights. These are the three pillars of a world in which human rights are not only respected but protected.
When 8 out of 10 people globally say they want to live in a democracy, I believe it is right to assert the universality of democratic values. Not only do we want the citizens of other countries to enjoy the rights and freedoms that we do. This country also has a direct interest in supporting global movements for democracy because democracies are more likely to respect human rights, more likely to support open trade, and less likely to go to war with each other.
This is why we have continued to work with and support the democratic government in Pakistan – a country that has for 60 years oscillated between military dictatorship and elected civilian government. It is why in Afghanistan, we have provided over £16m to support the Afghans to make the technical preparations needed for this year’s elections. And our commitment to democracy is also why, after a year of uncertainty in Bangladesh, we welcomed the elections there in December. They were widely acknowledged to have been free and fair and I hope that our funding for a new photo registration scheme helped to minimise electoral fraud.
But as much as we work to support democratic progress, we also need to be alive to the risk of countries slipping backwards. So in Russia in March we were explicit about our concerns over the limits on international observers and lack of equal media access in the run up to their Presidential Election. And we and our European partners were clear that the Iranian Parliamentary elections, also in March, in which over a third of prospective candidates were barred from standing, fell below international standards.
Freedom has always depended on rules and responsibilities as well as rights. If governments are unable or unwilling to deliver the most basic level of services to their people, to provide protection and security, or to ensure access to justice, human rights will have little tangible impact.
In too many countries the police and security services are to blame for human rights violations rather than to credit for their protection. After the post-election violence, the Kenyan police were accused of partiality, as well as shooting to kill, rape and looting. An independent report into the violence highlighted Kenya’s culture of impunity and called for a complete reform of the security forces. We are in discussions with the Minister for Internal Security to see how we can assist.
In the DRC we are helping build courts, purchase vehicles and train criminal justice officials. In Sudan we’re working with practitioners to reform criminal law and to train lawyers on international humanitarian, criminal and human rights law. And this year we are spending just over £29 million in Afghanistan, working with the Afghans and our international partners to build capacity in the justice and prison sectors.
The belief that all citizens have the right to be treated equally and fairly, with dignity and respect, is one of the most basic tenets of human rights. Although equal rights have a clear moral foundation, the arguments are also instrumental. By refusing women the right to work and to engage in politics, societies restrict not just their economic but also their social development. By denying children the right to an education and pushing them too early into the workplace, societies limit the potential of the entire nation. By marginalising or excluding a particular minority, governments fuel communal divisions and risk violence and conflict.
That is why we support community organisations and trade unions in civil society as well as governments, why we played a lead role in the development and passage of UNSCR 1820, a landmark UN resolution that addressed the issue of violence against women in conflict, and why although we were one of the first countries to recognise th state of Kosovo, we also work with the new Kosovan government to try to strengthen protections for Kosovan Serbs.
Our guiding thought in all our work has to be the importance and the dignity of individual human lives – of their stories and their hopes.
That is what struck me last April, on a visit to Peshawar, when I sat and talked with the relatives of some of those killed whilst attending political rallies in Pakistan. Their tragic losses had left them angry, but had not dimmed their belief in democracy. They all wanted their voices to be heard and they wanted the power to shape their lives and futures.
It was at the front of my mind again when last July I met Zimbabwean refugees at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg. These were the faces of human catastrophe. After years of poverty and repression under Mugabe these people had fled their homeland in desperation. Some of them had then been attacked by poor South Africans who said the refugees were stealing jobs and housing.
And one of my most poignant memories to my visit to Georgian refugee camp in August. I talked to one woman who had fled as Russian tanks rolled into her orchard. She hadn’t objected to the soldiers eating her peaches. But then they had started to destroy the trees.
It is these individual stories, not just of rights denied, but of lives and livelihoods destroyed, that lie at the heart of our work on human rights and that shape our foreign policy. It is the thoughts and the images of people’s personal suffering, and the desire to alleviate that suffering, that will be in my mind and, I know, those of my staff, as we continue our endeavours over the coming year.
No comments:
Post a Comment