8th March 2013 Dublin, Ireland
I am delighted to introduce today’s guest blog by an old friend, Dorota Mitrus*, who made an important contribution to helping promote effective democratic participation in Poland post-1989 and is now engaged in promoting democracy and effective governance in many other countries. Her blog speaks for itself. What I would like to stress is that […]
18th October 2011 London, UK
Jonathan Marshall, Head of the FCO Prisoners Team The last person executed in Britain was in 1964. It doesn’t seem that long ago does it? Whilst we no longer have capital punishment in the UK, what many people don’t realise is that there are a significant number of British nationals overseas who are facing the […]
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10th October 2011
Today is the 9th World Day against the Death Penalty. It is the longstanding policy of the UK to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle. However the death penalty is not prohibited by international law and 58 countries in the world retain it – that is 58 too many. […]
4th May 2011
Today is the annual celebration of World Press Freedom Day. On this day participants commemorate the fundamental principles of media freedom; highlight long-standing and emerging threats to that freedom; and pay tribute to journalists and activists who have risked their safety to advance public access to news and information. The main theme this year is […]
22nd March 2011
Imagine a child knocking on a door and being let in by a smiling family or friend. That’s the scene from a moving film presented by the charity Down Syndrome Education International, featuring children from dozens of countries including the UK and Ukraine. I watch the film with a roomful of guests at a World […]
21st March 2011
59 years in jail, reduced to 35 years, for satire? It sounds like a bad joke. But this is the sentence handed down by the regime in Burma in 2008 to popular comedian Maung Thura, better known as Zarganar. And his case is a good example of why the international community continues to call on […]
14th March 2011 Islamabad, Pakistan
Today is Commonwealth Day and it’s about women. The Commonwealth is an increasingly important family of nations who share a common history and have shared interests looking to the future. Last week, it was the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. So this year Commonwealth Day is rightly celebrating the role of women as agents […]
7th March 2011
1 March is St David’s Day, named after the patron saint of Wales who died in 589. I’m part-Welsh: my great-grandfather John Derfel (photo below) came from the the town of Llanderfel in north Wales and was the son of the Welsh poet and political writer Robert Jones Derfel (for the Welsh-language Wikipedia entry, click here). […]
2nd March 2011
On 1 March the Welsh flag was flying outside the British Embassy as we marked St David’s Day. And several staff were wearing dragon or daffodil badges in their lapels to recognise the patron saint of Wales. (I even persuaded the Australian Ambassador to wear a daffodil alongside his kangaroo.) The date marks the anniversary […]
10th December 2010 Chevening, UK
Adeniyi Egbetade writes about CHIEF GANIYU OYESOLA FAWEHINMI (1938-2009). This eminent Nigerian lived and died for justice for mankind and the rule of law. He never allowed religious or tribal sentiments to taint his fight for human rights. Chief Fawehinmi studied law at Holborn College of Law UK between 1961and 1964. He fought the scourge […]
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