Human rights work at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
21st August 2013
Monday 19 August was World Humanitarian Day. Such days – which mark important international themes – occur regularly. But few can be as relevant and important this year given the severe refugee crisis caused by the tragic violence in Syria. There are now almost 2 million Syrians – 10% of the population – in neighbouring […]
1st August 2013
All of our countries face problems relating to the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). There have been some shocking cases recently in the UK which have raised awareness of the scale of what we have to deal with – the British Prime Minister has made very clear that addressing CSEC and its underlying causes […]
4th July 2013
Trafficking in human beings – for forced labour, for sex, for their organs – has been with us as long as one human has exploited another. That is no reason why we should resign ourselves to its existence in the 21st century. The British government sees tackling modern slavery as an important global priority. And yet, […]
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17th June 2013 Geneva, Switzerland
As the three-week session came to a close on Friday evening, delegates looked each other in the eye with weary emotion and asked how was it for you? The general mood seemed to be that it had been a good session but that the earth didn’t move. Getting through Council sessions is as much a […]
10th June 2013 Geneva, Switzerland
Week two of the June session is never much fun. The end is just a bit too far from sight, there’s a huge amount of fiddly sorting out still to do and almost everyone is in a ratty mood from having spent too much time together. Tempers tend to reach optimal fraying point at about […]
3rd June 2013 Geneva, Switzerland
I’m sure the June session of the Council never used to be this busy. In years gone by it felt less like a session in its own right and more like the after show party of the March session when delegations would run a few resolutions that they didn’t quite find the time for and […]
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27th May 2013 Geneva, Switzerland
There was a time not so long ago when the Geneva sun shone happily throughout spring time, when kinder colleagues used to mistake me for an intern and the June Human Rights Council session actually began in June. This year we’ve still not managed to put our winter clothes away, a worrying number of colleagues […]
25th April 2013 London, UK
In an earlier blog I described the Commonwealth as “the world’s first social network”, and Bruneians as amongst its most savvy practitioners. You’ll see what I mean in this guest blog by Helen Yeo, one of two professional Bruneian women who are representing the Sultanate in the CSCLeaders programme, in London, Manchester, Oxford, Mumbai – […]
19th April 2013
The following is a guest blog by Simona Prete, Head of Communications. “Working for the British Embassy to the Holy See, I am privileged to meet and engage with remarkable women at the Vatican and in the Catholic network. Our Ambassador Nigel Baker noted on International Women’s Day: “the vital role played by women religious […]
17th April 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 […]
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