Promoting human rights internationally
Issue
Many people around the world are denied their human rights every day.
The UK government supports human rights, democracy and good governance around the world to increase Britain’s security, to protect British citizens overseas, and to secure political freedom globally.
Actions
The Human Rights and Democracy Programme supports various projects, including those aimed at: preventing torture, abolishing the death penalty, increasing people’s freedom of expression, giving people freedom of religious belief, achieving gender equality and enabling them to take part in free elections.
Human Rights and Democracy: the 2014 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report explains the government’s work to create democratic societies and promote human rights.
Democracy and the rule of law
The government supports democracy and the rule of law in a range of different ways. These include funding non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to increase citizen participation in political debate, reforming the European Court of Human Rights and working with regional and inter-governmental organisations and through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
Preventing torture
The government is working with other countries and organisations to prevent torture by funding projects to make criminal justice systems fairer and developing national organisations that can effectively monitor places of detention.
Abolishing the death penalty
The government is working with the EU and the UN to persuade other countries to abolish the death penalty. Our Strategy for Abolition of the Death Penalty 2010-2015 explains how the government persuades other governments to abolish the death penalty, funds projects to restrict the use of the death penalty and raises individual cases of British nationals sentenced to death overseas.
Supporting people’s freedom of expression
The government supports freedom of expression, including on the Internet, and will continue to press countries that restrict access to online media to uphold their international human rights commitments.
We believe that the right to freedom of expression applies, in principle, with equal force in cyberspace as elsewhere. We work with other countries to build a wider consensus about freedom of expression on the internet and to guard against the growing trend of political repression.
The UK joined the Freedom Online Coalition, a coalition of like-minded states that shares information on violations of freedom of expression and other human rights online, and cooperates in supporting and protecting human rights online.
Equality and non-discrimination
The UK works to support equality and non-discrimination for all people, including gender equality; upholding the rights of minority groups and lesbian, gay and transgender people; supporting the freedom of religion and belief.
Business and Human Rights
The government expects UK businesses to operate at all times in a way that is respectful of people’s human rights. In 2013, the UK launched a national action plan on business and human rights, becoming the first country to set out guidance to companies on integrating human rights into their operations.
In it we make clear the government’s duty to protect and promote human rights in the business context, outline our commitments to encourage good business practice by UK companies both domestically and internationally, and provide advice to UK companies to help them understand and manage human rights risk as part of their commercial activities.
The action plan is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights endorsed in the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011.
Background
Who we’re working with
The UN Human Rights Council is the UN’s primary body for discussion and action on human rights issues. The UK is proud to have been re-elected to the Human Rights Council for the 2014-16 term. We were pleased with the outcomes from 2014, our first year back on the Council – during which we played an influential role to help the international community shine a light on human rights violations in many parts of the world, not least in Syria, DPRK and Sri Lanka. The Council has also achieved some notable successes on difficult thematic issues, including the UN’s second ever resolution on sexual orientation. We will continue to honour our ‘pledges and commitments’ and push for an effective Council.
We also seek complementary action on human rights in other parts of the UN, including through the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, where all UN members can vote.
Based in The Hague, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first ever permanent court with the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals accused of the most serious crimes of international concern: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Court was established by the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court. The ICC is an independent international organisation, and is not part of the United Nations system.
The Advisory Group of Human Rights, which consists of non-governmental experts, was created in 2010 to give the Foreign Secretary the best possible information about human rights challenges; and for the Foreign Office to benefit from outside advice on the conduct of its policy. The group discusses a wide range of human rights issues including those relating to conflict, security and counter-terrorism, the events of the Arab Spring, freedom of religion or belief, and business and human rights.
The UK has signed up to international commitments on gender equality, including the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol, and the non-binding Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action for Women. The Government Equalities Office works with all UK government departments and the Devolved Administrations to ensure that we meet these commitments.
We work with UN Women to support gender equality, particularly through participating in the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
We work with the major EU institutions: the European Commission, the Council of the European Union (the Member States), the European Parliament to support equality and combat discrimination. We contribute to the development of common standards and regulations to protect UK interests and support best practices on equality.
We participate in a number of European Commission run groups on equality where we support UK policy and exchange best practice, including, EU Non-discrimination Governmental Expert Group, EU Commission’s Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for women and men and EU High-level Group on Gender Mainstreaming.
Within the Council of the European union, the governments of the EU Member States negotiate on equality and non-discrimination matters at the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council.
The Council of Europe seeks to develop common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights. Its work includes promoting gender equality and more recently lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGB&T) equality.
The Coalition Government is committed to strengthening its commitments with the Commonwealth. As a member of the Commonwealth, the UK supports the Commonwealth Gender Plan of Action (2005-2015). We work across the UK Government to implement our commitments in the Gender Plan of Action. We also liaise across government to co-ordinate, negotiate and present the UK’s position on gender equality, including the Women’s Affairs Ministerial Meeting (WAMM) and the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
Case studies
First deployment of a UK team of experts to the Syrian border
Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative in the FCO's Human Rights and Democracy Report 2012 covers the First deployment of a UK team of experts to the Syrian border
Human Rights and Democracy Report 2012 - case study- Bangladesh
The current political situation in Bangladesh remains volatile.
A case study from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report on the establishment of a UK Team of Experts to help support local responses to conflict-related sexual violence.
EU Training Mission for the Malian Armed Forces
The EU Training Mission for the Malian Armed Forces (EUTM) was launched in February 2013 to provide basic military training and advice to the Malian military.
UK response to reports of sexual violence in the Syrian conflict
A case study on the UK response to reports of sexual violence in the Syrian conflict from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Supporting survivors of sexual violence in Colombia
A case study on supporting survivors of sexual violence in Colombia from the 2013 FCO Human Rights and Democracy Report.
A case study on the September 2013 elections in Swaziland from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Country case study: Bangladesh – political violence
A country case study on political violence in Bangladesh from the 2013 FCO Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Country case study - Egypt: post-revolution political upheaval
A country case study on post-revolution political upheaval in Egypt from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Country case study: Ethiopia – justice and treatment in detention
A country case study on justice and treatment in detention in Ethiopia from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Country case study: Rwanda – freedom of association and expression
A case study on freedom of association and expression in Rwanda from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
A case study on the death penalty in Japan from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Country case study: Bahrain – progress on reform implementation
A country case study on the progress on reform implementation in Bahrain from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
A case study on women's rights in India from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
The role of women in Afghanistan
A case study on the role of women in Afghanistan from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
A case study on the plight of the Rohingya from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Country case study: Nigeria – the response to terrorism
A country case study on the response to terrorism in Nigeria from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
A case study on Mexico’s 'war on drugs' from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
The Open Government Partnership Summit
A case study on the Open Government Partnership Summit from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
A case study on the the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Responding to sexual violence in Burma
A case study on the UK response to sexual violence in Burma from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Bangladesh - Country case study update
A country case study update on Bangladesh which forms part or the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Egypt - Country case study update
A country case study update on Egypt which forms part or the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Ethiopia - Country case study update
A country case study update on Ethiopia which forms part or the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Nigeria - Country case study update
A country case study update on Nigeria which forms part or the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Rwanda - Country case study update
A country case study update on Rwanda which forms part or the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
Human rights defender Sombath Somphone in Laos
A case study on human rights defender Sombath Somphone from the 2013 Human Rights and Democracy Report.
From:
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Government Equalities Office
Department for Culture, Media & Sport
The Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP
Senior Minister of State
The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP
Jo Swinson MP