8th November 2024
Ecolabels: A Catalyst for Sustainable Food Choices?
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
17th October 2024
OSLOBOĐENJE BEOGRADA
11th October 2024
Busting the gender myths – women and organised crime
29th April 2016
Britain and Human Rights
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report was published on 21 April. This report is aimed at increasing awareness of the UK’s role in promoting human rights work overseas, and to encourage countries to uphold and maintain their international human rights record. The Report lists 30 human rights priority countries: these […]
28th April 2016 Addis Ababa
HM Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th Birthday and Commemorating Shakespeare
I was pleased to welcome a large number of guests to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday, at the British Ambassador’s Residence. The Queen’s Birthday party or QBP, as we call it in the Embassy, is an event hosted by all posts across the world to celebrate and cement relations between the UK and the corresponding country. This year we […]
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28th April 2016 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Did you know? UK-Ethiopia Profile of the Month
Major- General Orde Charles Wingate The Second World War hero and a British army officer, Major- General Orde Charles Wingate, was born on 26 February 1903, in Naini Tal, near Almora, in Kumaon, India. Most of Wingate’s childhood was spent in England. For the first 12 years of his life, he socialized primarily with his siblings. […]
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27th April 2016 London, UK
Opening a window in the smoke-filled room: Twitter and the #nextSG
Six years ago to the day, I signed into Twitter for the first time. At the time I was studying for exams and though I had a budding interest in the United Nations (UN), the concept of diplomacy was frankly pretty alien. Little did I know, about a half decade later, I would sit at […]
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27th April 2016 London, UK
Ready, set, Rio! The race is on!
Today we mark 100 days to the start of the 2016 Olympics games in Rio. It’s also the first of a series of blogs which I and colleagues will write as we prepare for the Games. To celebrate the milestone, we have created a video with some Olympic and Paralympic stars, providing British nationals travelling […]
27th April 2016 Skopje, North Macedonia
Testimonials: Improving social cohesion in high schools in Macedonia
Quality and inclusive education is one of the basic principles for the democratization of the society. Macedonian education system has made efforts to give an accent and importance of teaching the youth to recognise differences and value them, to include the youth in their school environment, respect different ethnicities and link students through learning about coexistence and […]
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26th April 2016 London, UK
Emergency travel documents online: getting people home the complicated way
Last year I wrote a number of ‘Photo casebooks’ talking about what an emergency travel document is, and our plans to digitise the application process for an emergency travel document. The project is still invitation only, but has now been rolled out worldwide; and at least until our legalisation online project goes live, it is […]
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26th April 2016 Beirut, Lebanon
War and Reconciliation
Yesterday I participated in an ANZAC ceremony for the first time: a moving dawn service led by Australian Ambassador Glenn Miles to commemorate the fallen of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) in the battle of Gallipoli, 1915. This tragic battle helped forge the modern countries of Australia and New Zealand. There was […]
25th April 2016 Geneva, Switzerland
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 […]
25th April 2016 Stockholm, Sweden
Chernobyl – 30 years on
“Good evening, there has been no nuclear accident anywhere in Russia today particularly not in Chernobyl. No one is feared dead in the incident, which did not happen The rescue services have not been called out because obviously, that would be stupid considering there isn’t a vast nuclear cloud drifting across Northern Europe. So, no […]