Category: torture

Podcast Episode: Uyghur Solidarity And Advocacy


Short podcast of our last two posts on this campaign

Pip: August 2026, and a cultural genocide that’s largely dropped out of the news โ€” which is exactly when a local Amnesty group decides to make some noise.

Mara: The Salisbury has been writing about Uyghur Solidarity Month, and that’s the territory we’re covering today โ€” the scale of what’s happening in Xinjiang, and what people in Salisbury can actually do about it.

Pip: Let’s start with the oppression itself, and who’s trying to break through the silence.

Uyghur Solidarity Month: Oppression and the Fight for Awareness

Mara: The framing here is stark: this is described as “the largest campaign of cultural genocide in the modern era,” and Amnesty’s declaration of August as Uyghur Solidarity Month is a direct response to the crisis slipping from public view.

Pip: The post points to one outlet trying to hold that ground โ€” Kashgar Times, founded in April 2025. Here’s how they describe their mission: “At Kashgar Times, our mission is to break through that silence. We aim to bridge the information gap. We provide a platform where Uyghur voices can be heard, and their stories told โ€” free from propaganda.”

Mara: What that means in practice is that independent, on-the-ground reporting from Xinjiang is nearly impossible to obtain. China’s censorship has closed off the region to journalists and foreign observers entirely, so an outlet run by Uyghurs, for a global audience, is filling a gap that mainstream media simply cannot.

Pip: The scale is worth sitting with. Around a million individuals detained. Children separated from parents. Arbitrary detention, torture, forced labour, persecution on grounds of religion and ethnicity. And a proposed Chinese embassy in London โ€” potentially the largest in Europe โ€” raising fears about expanded surveillance of dissidents on British soil.

Mara: The second post, “Uyghur solidarity month,” pulls the crisis closer to home in a way that’s hard to dismiss. It includes a draft letter to local newspapers, drawing on findings from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the 2021 Uyghur Tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, which concluded the Chinese government had committed genocide.

Pip: And then there’s the wardrobe argument โ€” which is either uncomfortable or very effective, depending on your tolerance for being implicated personally. A quarter of the world’s cotton comes from Xinjiang.

Mara: The post puts it directly: “You will have in your wardrobe, or be wearing, many items made of cotton. It is highly likely that some of them have been made with cotton from this region using virtual slave labour.” The ask is simple โ€” write to your local paper.

Pip: Silence, as the post notes, makes it easier to ignore. And writing a letter is not nothing.

Mara: A genocide that’s fallen out of the news cycle, and a local group working to put it back โ€” that’s the thread running through everything here.

Pip: More to come through the month, apparently. We’ll be watching.

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Post Brexit trade deals


UK likely to abandon human rights concerns in its rush for trade deals

News today (3 January 2021) that the government has agreed a comprehensive trade deal with Turkey has set alarm bells ringing about the future for human rights in further deals.ย  Following our departure a few days ago from the EU, the government is trying hard to secure trade deals around the world to replace any problems which might occur limiting trade with them.

The human rights situation in Turkey is dire.ย  Journalists and human rights defenders have been jailed on vague charges of the terrorism kind.ย  Newspapers have been closed.ย  Torture is common in police stations and there is a culture of impunity for the security forces.ย  Thousands of people are denied work accused of being terrorists or aiding terrorists.ย  Essentially the rule of law has all but broken down.

We do of course have to trade around the world and if we only did so with those with clean hands, business would be rather thin.ย  We do not have to sell them arms however to make the region less stable and enhance the president Erdogan’s ability to control his people.ย  Liz Truss’s unquestioning enthusiasm for a trade deal seemingly at any cost is to be deprecated.

Does regaining sovereignty mean selling anything to anyone?

 

Will this be repeated around the world with all sorts of regimes who mistreat their citizens, use torture routinely and are indifferent to human rights?ย  Time will tell but it is to be hoped that the desire to secure deals at any price, no questions asked, does not become the norm.ย  Is this what ‘regaining our sovereignty’ means?ย  Freedom to sell arms and other sensitive materials to some of the world’s worse regimes?

Peter Curbishley

 

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Twilight of Human Rights Law


Edited: 10 April 20

We have chosen to review the book Twilight of Human Rights Law by Prof. Eric Posner (OUP) as it appeared in an article by Britain’s new Attorney General, Suella Braverman. ย She refers to one of his arguments in a newspaper article. ย In addition, the many attacks on human rights and the desire to abolish the Human Rights Act is part of current government policy.

The first part of the book is a tour d’horizonย of the many failings in human rights around the world. ย He instances massive violations in places like Rwanda, the appalling treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar, the terrible events in Chechnya and many other places around the world. ย He rightly points out that although countries have signed up to treaties to abolish the use of torture, it is still widely practised. ย He points to bad police practice in countries like India, Brazil and Indonesia. ย Slavery is still the curse it ever was but organised in a different way.

International treaties have had little effect he says in improving behaviour. ย In a small number of cases it has he concedes. ย He discusses the imperialist criticism of western states seeking to impose their moral compass on other countries based on attitudes dating back to colonial days. ย He instances the use of torture by the Americans at Guantanomo Bay following 9/11. ย This was supported by a majority of Americans and thus challenges their claims of moral leadership.

The argument seized on by the Attorney General is that of a trade-off as far as the use of torture is concerned. ย The argument here is that many countries have limited resources. ย They have a choice between spending money on improving the police and stopping torture or, investing in health care or education. ย Since better health care and education is likely to be of greater benefit to more people, it is a preferred option.

THEย book is flawed in many important respects. ย Although the arguments he provides and examples of failure and continuing violations and bad behaviour by many states around the world are true enough, it is not true to say that there have been no improvements in the human rights everywhere. ย One of the problems is that transgressions are news: steady improvements aren’t. ย So we read or see TV programmes about violations or genocide for example, but not small improvements in say, Russia.

The argument about torture assumes that there is an economic equivalence between improving police behaviour and education spend. ย The two are likely to be vastly different. ย Improving police behaviour and that of the judiciary would cost millions, education costs significantly more than that. ย Moreover, education is a continuing cost, sorting out the police is more likely to be a one-off cost. ย Getting rid of torture is likely to have benefits to society. ย The police are trusted then they will get more support from the public. ย He gives no credence to the fact that torture is ineffective. ย People will say anything to get it to stop.

Another unconsidered factor is the very cost of running a police state.ย  To run a state like China where human rights are flouted on a massive scale, is immensely costly.ย  The Chinese monitor movements of its people, they have a vast system of tracking the worldwide web to ensure its citizens do not read what the state doesn’t want them to, and they employ a huge army of police and informers.ย  They have invested heavily in cameras and systems to watch its people’s movements.ย  It is not true to assume therefore that improving human rights is somehow automatically more costly than the politics of repression.

As AC Grayling puts it in his book Ideas that Matter (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2009);

The ideas embodied in all these human rights instruments have a powerful influence on thinking and behaviour, even if violation of them continues: hope has to lie in the future as these ideas become more widespread and more influential still.ย  (p179)

Although Posner gives a good summary of human rights, especially since the war, he does not discuss the longer history since Magna Carta. There has been a trend over centuries of citizens gradually acquiring more rights. ย The European Court has, slowly but surely, done a lot to raise standards as has the International Criminal Court. ย Nor does he credit the fact that the presence of treaties is an important support for people pressing for better rights in those countries where they are poor. ย The many human rights organisations are able to pursue their arguments and press for changes precisely because there is a corpus of treaties and law to base their actions on. ย The point overlooked by the professor is that the treaties enable actionย withinย the country itself.

He also makes great play of the numbers of treaties and long list of rights, which he says, renders them less effective. ย He lists them all in an appendix but upon examination, many are restating the same points. ย He seems to overlook the vast number of laws which govern most states. ย These are constantly added to as new problems emerge or old problems need solutions, the Children Act for example. ย The number of laws do not make improving society less effective – quite the opposite it could be argued.

Perhaps because Prof. Posner is a lawyer but he sees progress purely through the lens of law and treaties. ย He does not take into account that laws are just one part of the equation. ย A considerable amount is done by persuasion, human rights activists, diplomats and others (including Amnesty members) beyond pure legal action.

Overall, despite the long list of problems and failures, he does not convince that it is twilight for human rights.

Human Rights tableau, France

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Torture report


Select committee issues two damning reports on UK’s role in torture

The Intelligence and Security Committee released its report in the UK’s role in torture on 28 June 2018 and this revealed the shocking extent of MI6’s involvement.ย  It is government policy, and the legal position, that the UK does not use torture nor does it outsource the practice to other agencies or governments.ย  It is counterproductive since under torture, victims are likely to say anything to get it to stop.ย  The evidence thus gleaned is of doubtful value as was dramatically shown in Iraq and our decision to invade.ย  It is also a key part of the Human Rights Act.ย  Article 3 protects you from:

– torture (mental or physical)
– inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and
– deportation or extradition (being sent to another country to face criminal charges) if there is a real risk you will face torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the country concerned.
As you would expect, public authorities must not inflict this sort of treatment on you. They must also protect you if someone else is treating you in this way. If they know this right is being breached, they must intervene to stop it. The state must also investigate credible allegations of such treatment.ย  Equality and Human Rights Commission

That we were involved in this activity has been known for some time although often the details were not available.ย  So were the denials and here is Jack Straw – the Home Secretary for much of the time when this was happening – claiming in an interview:

Unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories and that the officials are lying, that I am lying, that behind this there is some kind of secret state which is in league with some dark forces in the United States, and also let me say, we believe that Secretary Rice is lying, there simply is no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition full stop.ย  Quoted by Peter Oborne in the Daily Telegraph, 11 April 2012 [accessed 3 July 2018]

Peter Oborne continued: After Mr Straw spoke out, further denials followed. Tony Blair insisted that Britain had never engaged in the practice.ย  Mr Strawโ€™s successor, David Miliband, was equally adamant.ย  Sir John Scarlett, until recently head of the Secret Intelligence Service (and the official responsible for the notorious dossier of September 2002 which asserted that Saddam Hussein was capable of deploying weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes) was forthright. โ€œOur officers are as committed to the values and the human rights values of liberal democracy as anybody else,โ€ he said, adding that there was โ€œno complicity in torture.ย  (ibid)

The scale of the activity revealed by this report was a surprise.ย  Up until the report was published it was known that the activity had taken place on a modest scale but the facts show otherwise:

โ€ข On 232 occasions UK intelligence officers were found to have continued supplying questions to foreign agencies between 2001 and 2010, despite knowing or suspecting a prisoner was being tortured or mistreated.
โ€ข There were 198 occasions when UK intelligence officers received information from a prisoner whom they knew was being mistreated.
โ€ข In a further 128 cases, foreign intelligence bodies told UK intelligence agencies prisoners were being mistreated.
โ€ข MI5 or MI6 offered to help fund at least three rendition operations.
โ€ข The agencies planned or agreed to a further 28 rendition operations.
โ€ข They provided intelligence to assist with a further 22 rendition operations.
โ€ข Two MI6 officers consented to mistreatment meted out by others.ย  Only one of these incidents has been investigated by police.
โ€ข In a further 13 cases, UK intelligence officers witnessed an individual being tortured or mistreated.
โ€ข MI5, MI6 and the military conducted up to 3,000 interviews of prisoners held at Guantanamo.
โ€ข No attempt is being made to find out whether guidelines introduced by the coalition government in 2010 are helping to prevent the UKโ€™s intelligence agencies from continuing to be involved in human rights abuses.
โ€ข The UK breached its commitment to the international prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
โ€ข On at least two occasions ministers took “inappropriate” decisions.
โ€ข Jack Straw authorised payment of โ€œa large share of the costsโ€ of the rendition of two people in October 2004. The Guardian 2 July 2018

Not that this is the full story.ย  The government prevented individual officers from giving evidence so there may well be more to come out in future.ย  On this matter, Kate Allen, the director of Amnesty said:

It is obvious that the ISC was prevented by the Government from producing a thorough report about what really happened โ€“ it says so itself.ย  The ISC had no powers to summon witnesses or demand full evidence, and its findings were always subject to redaction and veto from the Prime Minister herself.ย  Instead of the independent, judge-led torture inquiry promised by David Cameron, weโ€™ve had an under-powered, over-controlled review by a committee that was never empowered to get the job done.ย  While the Committeeโ€™s report represents a helpful step forwards, it is not the definitive account of what really happened. It was always the wrong tool for the job.
With the President of the United States personally praising waterboarding and the CIA led by someone closely linked to torture, now is not the time to brush this issue under the carpet. We need a full judge-led inquiry now.ย  Amnesty statementย 

The Response

In the face of damning evidence and a considerable amount of research carried out by the committee over many years, one might have thought that a contrite response from the head of MI6 at the time, Sir Richard Dearlove, would be appropriate, if not a full apology.ย  Not a bit of it.ย  Here he is quoted in the Sun* newspaper:

As far as my former service is concerned, the mistreatment issue has been blown out of proportion by pressure from certain interest groups [one assumes Amnesty is among them].ย  There never was a systemic problem, and there are no skeletons in the cupboard from my time.ย  The staff served the nation magnificently and with due care for our respect for the law.ย  In extreme circumstances, there will always be incidents that one regrets.ย  But nothing illegal was perpetrated – which is as achievement given the extent of the provocation.ย  Warning of the chilling effect that the MPsโ€™ withering criticism could have, the ex-spymaster added: Itโ€™s time to move on and not allow our willingness to take risks to be diminished.ย  The Sun 29 June 2018

No mea culpa there.ย  Quite what the ‘provocation’ is not explained.ย  Torture seems to be part of a need to ‘take risks’.ย  This quotation – if it is an accurate statement of his position – is disgraceful.ย  That the former head of the service brushes aside a comprehensive and detailed description of our – and his service’s role – in water boarding, stress positions and other forms of degrading treatment is utterly reprehensible.ย  His defence seems to rest on the fact that MI6 officers did not actually do the torturing themselves.

But he is not alone.ย  This is the Sun’s editorial position:

WHAT did we gain by MPs blowing five years probing what MI5 and MI6 knew of the US torture of terror suspects back in 2001?ย  Their report admits our spooks were directly involved only twice.ย  And if it extracted vital intelligence preventing further atrocities after 9/11, so what if we turned a blind eye?ย  Yes, torture is barbaric.ย  But the CIA firmly believes it saved lives.ย  Would those people wringing their hands over it prefer to have risked thousands more being massacred by al-Qaeda?

Still perpetuating the myth that torture is necessary and saves lives.

As a nation we pride ourselves on civilised behaviour.ย  We promote such behaviour around the world and in the UN.ย  We are signatories to key treaties and it is government policy that we do not torture people.ย  We have the Human Rights Act which prohibits it.ย  Government ministers constantly claim that such practices are alien to our culture and way of doing things.ย  We have a fundamental sense of decency it is claimed.ย  However, Peter Beaumont, a journalist with the Observer, says over the years he has ‘been lied to a lot’.

British intelligence officers, despite all the denials, were aware of the mistreatment, they benefited from it and even supplied their own questions for the victims of mistreatment despite knowing those being interrogated were being brutalized.ย  1 July 2018ย 

Even now, people like Sir Richard Dearlove are in denial.ย  The government has done all it can to frustrate the enquiry and to prevent it getting to the truth.ย  Jack Straw and others have many questions to answer.

Joint statement by human rights organisations

*a tabloid newspaper part of the Murdoch group in the UK.

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UK complicity in torture


Independent judge-led inquiry into UK complicity in tortureย needed

No one should be subject to torture
Article 5: No one should be subject to torture. Image from the tapestry

Amnesty International believes that there is credible evidence that the UK has been involved in grave human rights violations perpetrated against people held overseas by other authorities since the attacks in the USA on 11 September 2001.

The UN Convention Against Torture states that โ€˜no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of tortureโ€™. ย It also states there should be a prompt and impartial investigation wherever there is reasonable ground to believe an act of torture has been committed.

The Human Rights Act 1998 also prohibits torture under any circumstances, and that obligation implicitly requires a prompt independent investigation of credible allegations โ€“ the more so when there appears to be a โ€˜systemicโ€™ problem.ย ย ย The existence ofย evidence requires the establishment of an independent, impartial and thorough judge-led inquiry, now.ย  Credible allegations implicate the UK in torture or other ill-treatment, unlawful detentions and renditions.ย  Over the years, Amnesty International and others have documented cases of the UKโ€™s involvement in these abuses, including:

  • UK personnel were present at interrogations of detainees held unlawfully overseas in circumstances in which the UK knew, or ought to have known, that the detainees concerned had been or were at risk of being tortured and/or whose detention was unlawful and even that they participated in such interrogationsย  ๏‚ท
  • UK personnel provided information (e.g. telegrams sent by UK intelligence personnel to intelligence services of other countries) that led the USA and other countries to apprehend and detain individuals when the UK knew or ought to have known that these people would then be at risk of torture and/or unlawful detentionย ย ย  ๏‚ท
  • The UK was involved in the US-led programme of renditions and secret detentions through, for example, the use of UK territory (e.g. Diego Garcia) and/or airspaceย ย ย  ๏‚ท
  • UK personnel forwarded questions to be put to individuals detained by other countries in circumstances in which the UK knew or ought to have known that the detainees concerned had been or were at risk of being tortured and/or whose detention was unlawful ๏‚ท
  • The UK systematically received information extracted from people detained overseas in circumstances in which it knew or ought to have known that the detainees concerned had been or were at risk of torture and/or whose detention was unlawful.

Testimony
A number of individuals – including former Guantรกnamo Bay detainees –ย have spoken publicly about UK involvement in their mistreatment.ย  Shaker Aamer, who was released from Guantรกnamo in October 2015, after nearly 14 years without charge or trial, has said for example that a UK official was in the room when his head was beaten against a wall.

Binyam Mohamed
Binyam Mohamed

In 2008 the High Court confirmed that the UK, through its security service MI5, had facilitated the interrogation of Binyam Mohamed in the knowledge that his initial detention in Pakistan was unlawful. Then, during a two-year period, the UK continued to facilitate interviews conducted on behalf of the US authorities when it must have realised that Binyam Mohamed was being held unlawfully by a third country and knew or ought to have known that there was a real risk thatย he was being tortured.

Proper investigation needed

stop torture
Image: Amnesty Paris

The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has now been given the task of investigating allegations of UK complicity in torture, but Amnesty International, along with many other anti-tortureย organisations including the UN, believes that the ISC is wholly unsuited to the task in hand.ย  The structural limitations of the ISC, particularly its lack of power and independence from government, means that any investigation the ISC conducts is unlikely to get to the truth, and cannot satisfy the UKโ€™s human rights obligations. The ISC is not a traditional Parliamentary committee, even though it is made up of parliamentarians.ย  Ministers ultimately decide what evidence the Committee can see, with the Prime Minister controlling what it can publish and even who can be a member. Crucially, the government retains the right to withhold information considered to be โ€œsensitiveโ€ or on grounds of national security from the ISC.ย  The definition of what constitutes sensitive information is extremely broad and notably includes information provided by a foreign intelligence agency which can object to further disclosure of that information.ย  Any Secretary of State can determine material is sensitive and in the interests of national security should not be disclosed to the ISC.

Poor record
The ISC has a poor record in holding the intelligence services to account. In 2007, three years after the rendition of the Libyan families, the ISC produced a report which said that there was โ€œno evidence that the UK Agencies were complicit in any โ€œExtraordinary Renditionโ€ operations.โ€

Historical context
In July 2010, the Prime Minister promised to establish an independent inquiry into allegations of UK involvement in torture and other human rights violations with respect to individuals detained abroad in the context of counter-terrorism operations.ย  At the time, David Cameron specifically ruled out the possibility of the ISC carrying out the investigation, recognising that an inquiry led by a judge who is โ€œfully independent of Parliament, party and Governmentโ€ was required โ€œto get to the bottom of the caseโ€.

In 2011 the Detainee Inquiry was established, led by the retired judge Sir Peter Gibson.ย  Amnesty International and a number of other organisations felt that the Detainee Inquiry fell short of the UK’s international human rights obligations and domestic obligations under the Human Rights Act to fully and independently investigate allegations of UK involvement in torture and other ill-treatment.ย  Of most concern was that the government retained final say on what material could be disclosed to the public and that the protocol did not provide for an independent mechanism to decide on disclosure of national security material.

In January 2012 the Detainee Inquiry was suspended, after Scotland Yard announced a criminal investigation into joint UK/Libyan operations which had resulted in the rendition of Libyan opposition figures. Those investigations are ongoing.

In December 2013 the Detainee Inquiry interim report was published.ย  It highlighted that the evidence it had received indicated that UK agents were aware of abuse of some detainees by other governments and that the UK government may have been involved in rendition.ย  It outlined 27 separate issues that should be subjected to further investigation. Amnesty and others expected this to be followed by a proper full judge led inquiry.

Dominic Grieve QC MP
Dominic Grieve QC MP

Instead, on 19 December 2013, it was announced that the ISC had been tasked with examining allegations of UK complicity in torture and other ill-treatment of detainees held overseas, which had previously been the subject of the Detainee Inquiry.ย  In September 2015 Dominic Grieve was appointed as the new Chair of the ISC.ย  There is as yet no news on its work in this area.

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UN Security Council: North Korea


North Korea is not forgotten

The UN Security Council has a chance to show that the world has not forgotten about the victims of crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in North Korea, and that those responsible will face justice

said Nicole Bjerler, Deputy Representative at Amnesty Internationalโ€™s UN office in New York.

This meeting should serve as a wake-up call to the North Korean authorities to put an immediate end to the systematic, widespread and grave human rights violations that persist in the country. A starting point would be for them to cooperate with the UN and let independent human rights monitors into the country.

The meeting on Thursday is a significant step forward in the UN Security Councilโ€™s commitment to address the horrific human rights situation in North Korea alongside peace and security.

โ€œPeace and security cannot be separated from respect for human rights, accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims and their families. These issues urgently demands the Security Councilโ€™s continued attention,โ€ said Nicole Bjerler.

International pressure on North Korea has been building since the publication of the UN Commission of Inquiry report in February 2014.ย  The damning report documented widespread human rights violations including forced labour, deliberate starvation, executions, torture, rape, infanticide, and up to 120,000 men, women, and children detained incommunicado in North Koreaโ€™s political prison camp system โ€“ a situation described as โ€œwithout parallel in the contemporary worldโ€.

Last December, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution which, among other measures, called on the UN Security Council to take appropriate action to ensure accountability, including through consideration of referral of the situation in North Korea to the International Criminal Court. ย The General Assembly is reiterating its call in this yearโ€™s resolution, which was adopted by the Third Committee on 19 November and is to be formally adopted in the Plenary next week.

โ€œThe UN Security Council must seize the opportunity today to tell perpetrators of crimes against humanity in North Korea that ultimately they will be held accountable,โ€ said Nicole Bjerler.

 

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London Arms Fair


Will torture equipment be on display this week in London?

September 2015

The London Arms fair, DSEI,ย opens on 15th September at the ExCel centre at which – in addition to the range of arms large and small –ย torture equipment has been displayed in past years.ย  No doubt drones will be on display which enable executions to be carried out from thousands of miles away.ย  The exhibition runs under conditions of great security and in the past, the comedian Mark Thomas was able to set up a fake stall and interest various passing visitors with his torture equipment.

Arms-Fair---share-assets-email-Sep-2015

The four day exhibition is supported by the government and is an exclusive expo of deadly weapons and arms with a history of companies advertising illegal torture equipment.ย  Britain has sold arms to 19 of the 23 countries listed by the UN for grave violations against children.

There is a kind of irony that two weeks ago the country was shaken by the death of Aylan Kurdi which prompted a volte face by our government and has seen Mr Cameron in the Lebanon visiting the camps.ย ย The Chancellor, George Osborne spoke of the need toย tackle the refugee crisis at source yet we host an event which supplies deadly equipment to countries like Saudi Arabia; Turkmenistan; Pakistan; Libya and Colombia where respect for human rights is almost non-existent.

We want to see the government to stop illegal torture equipment being advertised in the UK.

Poster by Amnesty International

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Robust reponse to Saudi Arabia rejected by FCO


UPDATE: 3 August

At the end of this blog we wrote ‘it seems therefore that nothing will change’.ย  How wrong can you be as it has just been announced that the FCO will no longer be specifically campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty.ย  The FCO message to us was dated 6 July and Mr Glen’s covering letter dated 14 July.ย  So in the space of a few weeksย abolishing the death penalty world wideย has gone from ‘a human rights priority for the UK’ to being no longer a policy.ย  The group plans to write to Mr Glen again to seek clarification.

July 2015

No to the death penalty

The Salisbury Group wrote to the local MP, Mr John Glen to ask for a more robust response by our government to the barbaric activities of the Saudi government in particular the increasing number of executions which are taking place.  In our letter we said:

[we are writing] to you in connection with the increasing level of executions currently taking place in Saudi Arabia.  (Over the course of the first five months of this year, the number of executions has equalled that of the whole of 2014).

You will no doubt be aware that on his recent visit to the country, President Francois Hollande made a public statement to the effect that all executions, not just those of his own nationals, should be banned, and called for the abolition of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.

M. Hollande was prepared to do this, despite the fact that France – as does the United Kingdom – has significant financial interests in the its dealings with Saudi Arabia. The British government, however, has never seen fit to raise the issue in public, preferring to pursue a policy of ‘quiet diplomacy’.  This policy has manifestly had no effect.  Numbers continue to rise, and the Saudi Government have now advertised for eight additional executioners – ‘no particular skills required.’

As a group, we are asking that your government should take a much more robust line over the issue with the Saudi government.

Whereas the government – including the Prime Minister – has been vocal in its criticisms of the Islamic State for its appalling behaviour and of Russia for its activities in Ukraine, they seem strangely silent when it comes to Saudi Arabia.  This contrasts with France which has openly criticised them and Sweden which has decided no longer to sell them arms.

Mr Glen replied, enclosing a letter from the FCO minister, and said:

“I enclose correspondence from the FCO minister Tobius Ellwood in reply to your recent letter about the UK’s apparent reticence when it comes to condemning the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.

“As you can see, the approach taken by the government is not in any way indicative of an equivocal view on this practice, which is as barbaric as it is ineffective.

“However, the government recognises that its abolition is not a matter of mere legal reform but would require a seismic societal shift.ย  It has therefore taken an approach which it feels is most constructive – engaging behind the scenes rather than inflaming the situation and triggering a backlash through outspoken public critique”.

The letter from the Foreign and Colonial Office is as follows:

“[…] The abolition of the death penalty is a human rights priority for the UK.ย  The UK opposes the death penalty around the world because we believe it undermines human dignity and there is no evidence that it works as a deterrent.

“Saudi Arabia remains a country of concern on human rights, because of its use of the death penalty as well as the restricted access to justice, women’s rights, and the restrictions of the freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion or belief.

“Ministers, our Ambassador, and the Embassy team in Riyadh frequently raise the issue of the death penalty with the Saudi authorities, bilaterally and through the European Union.ย  As it is part of Sharia Law, we must recognise that total abolition of the death penalty is unlikely in Saudi Arabia in the near future.ย  For now, our focus is on the introduction of EU minimum standards for the death penalty as a first step, and supporting access to justice and the rule of law.

“The British Government’s position on human rights is a matter of public record.ย  We regularly make our views well known including the UN Universal Periodic Review process and the Foreign and Colonial Office’sย  annual Human Rights and Democracy Report.ย  We also raise our human rights concerns with Saudi Arabian authorities at the highest level.ย  But we have to recognise that the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia reflects widely held conservative social values and that our human rights concerns are best raised in private rather than in public”.

It seems therefore that nothing will change.  It is important to recognise that behind the scenes lobbying can be constructive.  However, the policy of raising matters ‘in private rather than in public’ does not appear to be working.  Successive governments have courted the regime and Saudis are free to invest in London and elsewhere in the UK.

Eurofighter of the type sold to Saudi Arabia

It would be naรฏve not to recognise the reality behind this reluctance to criticise the Saudis and the importance to the government of the sale of arms and the supply of oil.  Saudi Arabia is a key market for the UK and much effort is put into promoting sales including by members of the royal family – see the Guardian article:  Human rights are of secondary concern.

As long as these interests are paramount, it is difficult to see how the toll of executions can be checked in the near future.

 

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Repeal of the Human Rights Act HRA and a new Communication Bill both put pressure on human rights in the UK


Great was the joy among those who want to see an end to the ‘hated’ Human Rights Act when it was announced that Michael Goveย is the new Justice Secretary and Theresa May – no longer hampered by Lib Dems –ย will be able to introduce a new Communication Bill commonly called the ‘snoopers’ charter’.

Detailsย will be in the Queen’s Speech at the end of the month andย the actย might be gone by Christmas.ย  We look forward to seeing the British Bill of Rights when it is finally published and there is press comment that it has gone through eight drafts in an attempt to sort out the complexities.

There will be many who will be delighted by these moves such has been the press campaign waged against it.ย  We have noted inย a previous blog that a web site called Rights Infoย has been launched to try and counter the avalanche of negative reporting.ย  As the debate goes by itย would beย worthwhile catching up with this site which seeks to set out the true story in each case.ย  Few will read it unfortunately.ย  The case of Abu Qatada has become to epitomise the (alleged) failings of the act and the fact that Jordan used torture wasย conveniently overlooked.

In common with almost any act of parliament you care to mention, the Human Rights Act is capable of improvement or reform and few would argue with that.ย  For years the problem was individuals who had a problem had to make their way to Strasbourg to seek justice.ย  The HRA was passed with a lot of cross party support to enable these sorts of cases to be heard in the UK.ย  Such has been the hysteria and miss-reporting that a calm look at the act does not seem to be possible and in any event the die has now been cast.ย  The benefits that many ordinary people derive from the act rarely get a mention.

We shall follow events with interest.

UPDATE: 16 May.ย  Message from Kate Allen

Over the last few months we have been calling on all our political leaders to keep the Human Rights Act.ย Tens of thousands of you have taken action, held hustings, and discussed human right issues directly with your prospective parliamentary candidates.ย 
With the election results now in it is likely that the Human Rights Act is will be under threat like never before.
Over the next few days and weeks we will be carefully analysing the results and planning our next steps.ย Together we face a huge challenge and you have a vital role to play in the next phase of our campaign if we are to be successful.ย We will be in touch with more information about the campaign and how you can get involved soon.

Thank you,

Kate Allen
Director, Amnesty International UKย 

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Display goes up today in the Cathedral


We today erected the display in the cloister at Salisbury Cathedral to celebrate the signing of Magna Carta and to illustrate the #StopTorture campaign.

Display in the cloister

It will remain in place for many weeks.ย  There is also a panel on the Human Rights Act.

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