26th November 2013 London, UKMadrid, Spain
Yesterday, 25 November, the Embassy hosted a discussion of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI). It was particularly appropriate that we did so yesterday, as it was the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. And the start of the 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign. I was very […]
25th November 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
Maria da Penha was shot in the back while she slept. Not by a stranger, but by her husband. She survived, but the attack left her paraplegic and consigned to a wheelchair. The second attack happened on her return from hospital, when her husband tried to electrocute her in the shower. She survived that too. […]
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25th November 2013
One in every three women in the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime, according to the UN. Violence against women is a human rights violation and a crime. It is a result of discrimination against women and an effort to entrench persisting inequalities between men and women. It […]
19th November 2013 London, UKMadrid, Spain
Rape and other forms of sexual violence are used as weapons in conflicts the world over. The perpetrators of these appalling, life-shattering crimes still tend to go unpunished. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of victims struggle to re-build their lives. The British Government is committed to tackling sexual violence in armed conflict. This is why British […]
11th November 2013 London, UKMadrid, Spain
How was your shirt made? We’ve been working closely with our Spanish contacts on business and human rights in recent weeks. Globalisation means companies are increasingly sourcing and manufacturing their products via complex trans-national networks of suppliers and factories. But business success shouldn’t come at the cost of human rights. I’ve been sharing with the […]
24th October 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
Women are 50% of the population, 50% of the policy beneficiaries, and 90% of the casualties from armed conflict are civilian women and children; why not make them 50% of the decision making and peacekeeping processes? In the UK, women are 51% of the population, but only 22% of our parliamentary representatives, 23% of our […]
16th October 2013 Brasilia, Brazil
Today is Blog Action Day, an annual worldwide event where bloggers write about a single topic since 2007. Earlier this year over 800 Blog Action Day participants took part in a poll to help identify what the theme should be for 2013. The most popular votes and suggestions all fell under the banner of human rights, making […]
16th October 2013 Toronto, Canada
16 October is Blog Action Day, during which thousands of bloggers from all over the world write on a common theme. The theme for 2013 is Human Rights – the fundamental freedoms that all people are entitled to simply by virtue of being human; largely enshrined in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights […]
16th October 2013
Human rights is the theme of this year’s Blog Action Day, which falls today. So in this blog, I’d like to focus on the link between human rights, development and doing business. Recently, our Foreign Secretary William Hague talked about ‘Good Business: Implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.’ He outlined our […]
16th October 2013
16 October is Blog Action Day, when bloggers across the world are encouraged to post on the same theme. I participated last year. As the theme for 2013 is “Human Rights”, as a blogger and as an Ambassador to the Holy See, I can hardly fail to do so again. I recommend to anyone interested […]
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