The FCO and Human Rights

In recent years the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has published an annual report on human rights. The 2015 Report was released last week.

This year two themes sparked particular debate amongst those who follow Britain’s approach to human rights in civil society and elsewhere. The first was the length of the report, and the second was the concept of “mainstreaming”. At the launch event in the FCO’s grand Locarno Room (the same room that was used, a day later, to host the press conference by Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama) we were asked whether this was evidence that the FCO was reducing the resources it devotes to human rights.

The 2014 Report was 192 pages. The 2015 Report is 68 pages. If the priority given to human rights could be measured in trees cut down, this would signify a reduction of two thirds. But the usefulness of a report of this nature depends on other things, such as whether people read it; and whether it provides a coherent account of what the UK has done around on human rights, and a credible prospectus for our plans in the future.

Winston Churchill famously apologised to a correspondent by saying that he would have written a shorter letter, but he didn’t have time. And so with the 2015 Human Rights Report, which by all accounts took considerably longer to write that its predecessor. That was because the objective this time was to produce something more concise and impactful, a report that would be read rather than gather dust on a shelf.

The FCO also focused on fewer but more overarching priorities this year: democratic values and the rule of law; human rights for a stable world; and strengthening the Rules Based International System. One area of expansion, though, was the list of countries of concern, which went up from 27 to 30. Another important innovation was the focus on what the UK would do in 2016, with an annex setting out detailed goals, “SMART objectives” for our work over the coming year.

There second big issue at the launch, about which there has been some debate in the media and Parliament, was the FCO’s policy of mainstreaming human rights. There is concern that this really means cutting resources dedicated to human rights in the FCO and our diplomatic network overseas.

The UK’s influence in the Human Rights Council reflects the calibre of the human rights team in the UK Mission as well as the unstinting support we get from Human Rights and Democracy Department in the FCO. But it also depends, crucially, on the quality of our political analysis of what’s really going on in the countries of concern; our judgement of how and when to use multilateral fora to advance real progress on the ground; and the way in which we can mobilise the whole of our diplomatic service to lobby capitals to support those multilateral initiatives.

For that we need more than just my brilliant Geneva team and the human rights colleagues in London. For that we need to be able to call upon all our ambassadors and high commissioners, and the geographical departments in the FCO who instruct them. That is what mainstreaming really means. And on Thursday, at the launch, we heard what that means in practice from a panel made up of our ambassadors and high commissioners, and the innovative and principled ways in which they and their missions stand up for human rights, often in very challenging conditions.

One of the innovations less remarked upon at the launch, but that will significantly enhance the way the FCO promotes human rights, has been the increase in programme resources for human rights. The announcement that the Magna Carta Fund for human rights and democracy has been doubled to £10.6 million is but the most visible sign. The Prime Minister’s Golden Thread of good governance and the rule of law underlines the reality that human rights and human development are two sides of the same coin. As the amount of Overseas Development Assistance available to the FCO increases over this Parliament, the amount that will go to human rights will increase.

In Britain we have been wrestling with the need to strengthen our security without undermining our freedom. At the same time, we are making progress beyond the comprehension of my parents’ generation growing up, from women’s rights to gay marriage. As at home, so too abroad, the struggle for greater freedom and dignity never ends and will remain central to what the FCO does around the world.