FCDO Human Rights
Human rights work at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
10th April 2014
Sana’a, Yemen
Today the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office publishes its Annual Human Rights Report, which details our efforts to promote human rights globally in 2013. But while Yemen faces daily struggles against conflict, poverty, corruption, food and water insecurity, and terrorism why should we worry about human rights? Why should this be a priority? Yemen has […]
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2nd April 2014
London, UK
Start as you mean to go on, they say. Not easy, given the climactic nature of my first full week in charge of the FCO’s Human Rights and Democracy Department. Truth be told, this was the climax of my predecessor’s tenure – plans laid by her and my new colleagues, months ago, coming to fruition […]
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1st April 2014
Budapest, Hungary
Guest blog by Marcell Lőrincz, Chairman of Subjective Values Foundation (Szubjektív Értékek Alapítvány) Every March since 2011 the British Embassy has been organizing a very important event called the “Human Rights Movie Day”. This time our NGO, the Subjective Values Foundation, was asked to help in the implementation – so we did our best. As we […]
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31st March 2014
Geneva, Switzerland
It’s hard to convey quite what it’s like to go through a March Council session. The four-week experience is a prolonged assault on the mind, body and soul and while the end of the session is a cause for elation it also feels distinctly post-traumatic. The process of stress-decompression and re-entering normal life needs to […]
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25th March 2014
Geneva, Switzerland
Every Council delegate will know what a strain the March session can put on your family life. Things have got so bad that I’m now considering looking for a new wife. It’s not for me though. My wife has got to the point that she’s told me she needs someone like her to help look […]
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20th March 2014
Pretoria, South Africa
Friday 21 March is South Africa’s Human Rights day. It commemorates the Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960, when 69 people died and 180 were wounded after the police fired on a peaceful crowd that had gathered to protest against the restrictive pass laws imposed on non-white citizens. The protest was a stand by ordinary […]
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17th March 2014
Geneva, Switzerland
Human Rights Council sessions are always tough but this one feels particularly lacerating. As we reached the midway point on Friday evening there were some desperate looking faces heading towards the exits, including my own. The impact of several weeks of negotiating human rights at the UN is physically demanding, mentally exhausting and emotionally draining. […]
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10th March 2014
Geneva, Switzerland
With all the talk these days of business and human rights it can only be a matter of time before Council sessions start getting corporate sponsors. When it happens I hope that manufacturers of beta blockers are first in line to put their name to the March session and that they have plenty of freebies for […]
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10th March 2014
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
This is a guest blog by Datin Paduka Hjh Adina Othman, Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, to commemorate International Women’s Day 2014. As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2014, I wish all women of the world a great year ahead of us. In the past decades, we have seen great advances in women’s […]
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8th March 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
International Women’s Day has been observed in different forms since in the early 1900’s. But in recent years it has gone from strength to strength and become a much more genuinely global and shared event. With such a history, we should expect to see more progress on women’s issues. But women are still not paid […]
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