Human Rights and Democracy: the 2012 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report Human Rights and Democracy: the 2012 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk Human Rights and Democracy: The 2012 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report Human Rights and Democracy: The 2012 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs by Command of Her Majesty April 2013 Cm 8593 £38.75 © Crown copyright 2013 You may re-use this information (excluding logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/ or e-mail: [email protected]. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us Human Rights and Democracy Department Foreign and Commonwealth Office King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH This publication is available for download at www.official-documents.gov.uk and from our website at www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk ISBN: 9780101859325 Printed in the UK by The Stationery Office Limited on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office ID PO2537077 04/13 28854 19585 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum. CONTENTS Foreword by Foreign Secretary William Hague 5 Foreword by Senior Minister of State Baroness Warsi 8 SECTION I: Promoting and Protecting Human Rights through the UN 11 What Did We Seek to Achieve through the UN? 11 What Did We Achieve in the UN System on Human Rights? 12 Thematic Issues 18 Mainstreaming Human Rights in the UN 22 Looking Ahead to 2013 23 SECTION II: The Human Rights and Democracy Programme 24 SECTION III: Promoting British Values 29 Democracy 29 Elections 30 Westminster Foundation for Democracy 33 Freedom of expression 35 Human rights defenders 39 Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law 42 The death penalty 42 Torture prevention 46 International justice system 49 International Criminal Court 49 Special Court for Sierra Leone 50 Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia 50 International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia 51 International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda 51 Special Tribunal for Lebanon 51 International humanitarian law 52 Human rights offenders and entry to the UK 52 Equality and Non-discrimination 53 Freedom of religion or belief 53 Women’s rights 57 Children’s rights 62 Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights 63 Disability rights 66 Indigenous rights 67 Racism 68 Roma 69 Antisemitism 71 Anti-Muslim hatred 72 Post-Holocaust issues 72 1 SECTION IV: Human Rights in Safeguarding Britain’s National Security 75 Working in Partnership to Counter Terrorism Overseas 75 Counter-terrorism Programme work 76 Deportation with Assurances 76 The Detainee Inquiry 77 Guantánamo Bay 78 Counter-proliferation of Weapons 78 Export licensing 78 Cluster munitions 80 Mine Ban (Ottawa) Treaty 80 Arms Trade Treaty 80 Reducing Conflict and Building Stability Overseas 81 The Conflict Pool 81 The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) 83 Peacebuilding 85 Stabilisation capacity 86 Protection of civilians 86 Children and armed conflict 87 Private security companies 88 Women, peace and security 89 Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative 90 SECTION V: Human Rights in Promoting Britain’s Prosperity 93 The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights 93 OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises 95 Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights 95 The Kimberley Process 96 Bribery and Corruption 97 Arms Export Licensing 98 EU Trade and Human Rights 98 SECTION VI: Human Rights for British Nationals Overseas 99 The Death Penalty 99 Overseas Prisoners 100 Forced Marriage 101 Female Genital Mutilation 102 Child Abduction 102 SECTION VII: Working through a Rules-based International System 104 The European Union 104 EU enlargement 104 EU Common Foreign and Security Policy 108 European Neighbourhood Policy 109 2 The Commonwealth 111 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe 112 The Council of Europe 113 Sanctions 115 SECTION VIII: Promoting Human Rights in the Overseas Territories 116 Constitutional and Legal Protection of Human Rights 116 Extension of International Human Rights Conventions 117 Human Rights Project Work 118 Prison Reform in the Cayman Islands 118 Looking Ahead to 2013 119 SECTION IX: Human Rights in the Countries of Concern 120 Afghanistan 121 Belarus 127 Burma 131 China 137 Colombia 147 Cuba 152 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) 157 Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) 161 Eritrea 165 Fiji 170 Iran 175 Iraq 181 Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories 187 Libya 194 Pakistan 199 Russia 203 Saudi Arabia 209 Somalia 214 South Sudan 217 Sri Lanka 221 Sudan 227 Syria 233 Turkmenistan 239 Uzbekistan 244 Vietnam 249 Yemen 254 Zimbabwe 259 3 Case studies Case study: Lessons learned from the UK’s 2012 Universal Periodic Review 13 Case study: A Joint Communiqué between the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Republic of Korea 20 Case study: The Department for International Development’s work on economic and social rights 27 Case study: Egypt – post-revolution 30 Case study: Bangladesh – political violence 32 Case study: Swaziland – elections without political parties 33 Case study: Rwanda – freedom of association and expression 38 Case study: Ethiopia – the Charities and Societies Proclamation 41 Case study: The Gambia – the death penalty 45 Case study: Bahrain – progress on reform implementation 48 Case study: Women and girls in India 61 Case study: Nigeria – the response to terrorism 83 Case study: First deployment of a UK team of experts to the Syrian border 92 Photographic credits Front cover: Loubna Mrie, BASMA Page 126: Mette Bastholm/Helmand PRT/Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Department for International Development Page 238: Picture courtesy UN Photo/Mark Garten 4 Foreword by Foreign Secretary William Hague The promotion and protection of human rights is at the heart of the UK’s foreign policy objectives. I, along with my ministerial team, consistently raise human rights violations wherever and whenever they occur. And with this in mind, I am delighted to introduce the FCO’s 2012 Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report, which details our efforts to promote human rights during 2012. We have made a number of changes to this year’s report, including two new chapters. The first is on Promoting and Protecting Human Rights through the UN, and describes our work on human rights through the UN – the forum in which the UK seeks to promote a coordinated response to human rights violations from the international community. The second is on our Human Rights and Democracy Programme, an important source of funding that allows us to support hundreds of human-rights-related projects around the world. Another innovation to this year’s report is a new section on the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI), which I launched in May. The aim of this initiative is to strengthen and coordinate international efforts to prevent and respond to atrocities involving sexual violence, and to break down the culture of impunity around such crimes. We have included details of the work we have undertaken so far on PSVI, as well as a case study on the first deployment of a UK team of experts to the Syrian border to document abuses and provide essential training. This year we have taken a fresh look at our methodology for including states in the Countries of Concern section. The new methodology will ensure that our criteria remain robust, particularly in response to the interest that the Foreign Affairs Committee and members of my Advisory Group on Human Rights have shown in this section. The primary factor in our consideration remains the overall human rights situation in a country. But we also take into account how well the UK is placed to work for change. As a result of this analysis, we retained 27 of the 28 countries highlighted in 2011, dropping only Chad. My Advisory Group on Human Rights provided valuable input into reviewing those criteria, and the group continues to make a significant contribution to the development and implementation of our policy on human rights. I thank the group’s members for their commitment and their achievements so far, and look forward to continuing to work with them. But in Syria we continue to see terrible atrocities committed against civilians. The situation deteriorated further in 2012, with further reports of massacres, including against children. I repeatedly condemned these terrible acts and have instructed our diplomats to take every opportunity to highlight these violations and abuses and call for action at the international level. The UK has been at the forefront of the work of the UN Human Rights Council on Syria and has co-sponsored a number of resolutions, including one to condemn the al- Houleh massacre. We are working to ensure that all perpetrators will be held accountable, and in April we sent a team to the region to gather evidence and provide training to Syrian 5 activists to document human rights violations and abuses. This will provide a basis of information that can be used for future accountability processes. We are also at the forefront of calls for the situation in Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). We believe that the blame for the escalating violence lies on the shoulders of Assad and his regime, and in 2013 we will work with the Syrian National Coalition and the international community to achieve a political