Human Rights and Democracy: The 2014 Foreign & hrdreport.fco.gov.uk Commonwealth Office Report Human Rights and Democracy: The 2014 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report 1 Human Rights and Democracy: The 2014 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs by Command of Her Majesty March 2015 Cm 9027 2 Human Rights and Democracy: The 2014 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report © Crown copyright 2015 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected]. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at: Communications Team, Human Rights and Democracy Department, Room WH.1.203, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, London, SW1A 2AH Print ISBN 9781474114875 Web ISBN 9781474114882 ID P002702621 03/15 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum Printed in the UK by the Williams Lea Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Cover: Iraqi Yezidis flee to surrounding mountains across the border into Turkey Photo: Huseyin Bagis/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Contents 3 Contents Executive Summary ..................................................................................... 8 Foreword by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond .......................................10 Foreword by Minister for Human Rights Baroness Anelay .........................12 CHAPTER I: Protecting Civil Society Space and Human Rights Defenders ..15 The Current State of Civil Society Space ................................................................................. 15 Working through the UN to Protect Civil Society Space .......................................................... 15 Using UK Funding to Support Civil Society .............................................................................. 16 Lifeline: the Embattled NGO Assistance Fund ........................................................................ 18 Digital Defenders Partnership (DDP) Fund ............................................................................... 18 Human Rights Defenders ....................................................................................................... 18 Working through the EU in support of HRDs .......................................................................... 18 CHAPTER II: The Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative...............................21 CHAPTER III: Human Rights in Action ....................................................... 25 Mainstreaming Human Rights across the FCO Network .......................................................... 25 FCO Spend on Democracy and Human Rights ........................................................................ 26 The Human Rights and Democracy Programme Fund ............................................................. 26 Countries of focus ...........................................................................................................................................27 Promoting women’s rights ..............................................................................................................................27 Preventing sexual violence in conflict .............................................................................................................27 Global torture prevention ...............................................................................................................................28 Freedom of religion or belief ..........................................................................................................................28 Supporting freedom of expression .................................................................................................................28 Strengthening democracy ...............................................................................................................................28 Business and human rights.............................................................................................................................29 Abolition of the death penalty .......................................................................................................................29 Financial year 2015-16 ....................................................................................................................................29 Measurement and Evaluation of Human Rights Work ............................................................. 29 The Department for International Development’s Work on Economic and Social Rights .......... 29 Girls and women .......................................................................................................................................... 30 Health ............................................................................................................................................................ 30 Education ...................................................................................................................................................... 30 4 Human Rights and Democracy: The 2014 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report Water and sanitation .................................................................................................................................... 30 Economic empowerment .............................................................................................................................. 30 CHAPTER IV: Democracy ............................................................................31 UK approach to democracy strengthening ............................................................................. 31 FCO Programme Funding ....................................................................................................... 32 Elections and Election Observation Missions .......................................................................... 32 Westminster Foundation for Democracy ................................................................................ 33 Parliamentary and political party assistance .................................................................................................33 Building partnerships – shaping policy ..........................................................................................................33 Promoting equal rights ..................................................................................................................................35 Working with civil society to support democracy and human rights ............................................................35 Securing future human rights ....................................................................................................................... 36 Looking ahead ....................................................................................................................... 36 Freedom of Expression ........................................................................................................... 36 Chapter V: Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law ....................................... 43 The Death Penalty .................................................................................................................. 43 Torture Prevention .................................................................................................................. 44 International Justice System .................................................................................................... 47 International Criminal Court (ICC) ........................................................................................... 48 International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) .................................................................. 48 International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) ........................................................................................ 48 Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) ......................................................................... 48 The Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone (RSCSL) ...................................................................................... 49 Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) ................................................................................................................. 49 International Humanitarian Law (IHL) ........................................................................................................... 49 CHAPTER VI: Equality and Non-discrimination ...........................................51 Freedom of Religion or Belief ................................................................................................. 51 Antisemitism .......................................................................................................................... 54 Post-Holocaust Issues ............................................................................................................. 56 Anti-Muslim Hatred ...............................................................................................................