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Human Rights and Democracy Report

Wednesday, April 17th, 2013

This year it will be 65 years since the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Open any newspaper or news website today and you find depressingly many and varied examples of continuing breaches of those universal rights in countries around the world.

Advancing respect for universal human rights is a priority for UK, and EU, foreign policy. For that reason, every year the Foreign and Commonwealth Office publishes a Human Rights Report. The Report covers our global human rights priorities and countries of concern. On 15 April our Foreign Secretary William Hague launched the FCO Human Rights and Democracy Report 2012.

If you follow the Embassy on Twitter or Facebook or read my last blog you will know how the UK as G8 President is prioritising the issue of tackling rape and sexual violence in conflict. This year there is a new section on the Preventing of Sexual Violence Initiative in the Report.

At the launch event the Foreign Secretary was joined by two guest speakers; Dr Ahmed Shaheed, Human Rights Council special Rapporteur on Iran, who shared his insight into the work of the UN and Madeleine Rees from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and a member of the PSVI steering board spoke more widely about the violence against women, including sexual violence.

We want to know what you think too. On the FCO’s Human Rights and Democracy homepage you can submit your comments on this important issue.

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Tags: human rights, human rights and democracy report, Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, PSVI
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Threats Old and New

Friday, April 12th, 2013

This week, Foreign Ministers from the Group of Eight (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, US and Russia) met in London. They looked at a wide range of issues, including the situation in the Middle East (specifically Syria and Iran), Africa, DPRK and climate change.

Two particular issues they addressed illustrate that diplomacy has a role to play in tackling threats as old as warfare is and as new as today’s and tomorrow’s technology.

As G8 President, the UK has prioritised the issue of rape and sexual violence in conflict. The Government has announced £10 million in extra funding to tackle this scourge. Other G8 countries also announced new commitments.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has been working with the UN and NGOs on this, including UNHCR special envoy, Angelina Jolie. Attending the G8, she said:

Rape is not a women’s issue, or a humanitarian issue, it is a global issue and it belongs here at the top table of international decision-making”.

The UK aims to address the culture of impunity for those who use rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war. G8 leadership, along with the UN and EU, will, we hope, give new impetus to efforts to end one of the most devastating aspects of modern warfare and address one of the main reasons why it is so difficult for communities to come back together after conflict.

A very different type of threat comes from the cyber domain. G8 Ministers looked at the question of cyber security, specifically how to best balance security considerations with freedom of expression online. The UK and Sweden have worked closely on this, including at a joint event with Nordic and Baltic partners in January. But there is still a great deal of work to be done internationally to build countries’ capacity to minimise and combat cyber threats.

Earlier this week, William Hague announced a new Global Centre for Cyber-Security Capacity Building at Oxford University that will work bilaterally with countries on capacity-building projects.

Click here to read more about the outcome of the G8 Ministerial and the UK’s overall objectives for our Presidency this year.

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Tags: angelina jolie, G8, paul johnston, Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, William Hague
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The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Friday, November 23rd, 2012

Guest blog by Jenny Söderqvist, Political Attaché at the British Embassy in Sweden

This Sunday is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women – a UN initiative to raise awareness about this complex and serious problem. The date – 25 of November – has not been chosen at random, but marks the brutal assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, in 1960. That was over 50 years ago. But sadly, still today, we see too much violence against women and girls. This is a global problem that takes many different shapes and is closely linked to wider security and development issues.

One worrying example is the widespread sexual violence in war. From Bosnia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, rape has been used as a terrifying weapon in conflict. To raise awareness Foreign Secretary William Hague launched his Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) with UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie in May. This initiative aims to increase the number of perpetrators brought to justice by supporting international efforts and co-ordination, to prevent and respond to sexual violence and helping states build national capacity.

The British government is working hard to raise awareness of the problem and design and pursue adequate long-term responses, driven by both women and men. At the Embassy we discussed this issue with Swedish women’s groups, policy makers and non-governmental representatives, when the Permanent Secretary at the British Department for International Development, Mark Lowcock, visited Sweden in September. They all had lots of good ideas how to deal with the root causes of violence against women. This meeting really underlined to me that although in many cases the victims were women and girls, they were also the key to the solution. As an (often vocal!) woman myself I know what powerful advocates of change women can be. Women and girls hardly ever fight the world’s wars, but they often suffer the most. It’s time we all took a stand to change this.

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Tags: human rights, Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, violence against women
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