23rd November 2014 Chennai, India
I’ve spent most of my career working on Africa and its issues. It’s a beautiful, resilient, inspiring continent. The people are simply extraordinary. But I’ve also seen first-hand the prevalence of violence against women there. That’s true in conflict – in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and most recently as Ambassador to the Central […]
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29th October 2014 Budapest, Hungary
Guest blog by Lídia Bánóczi, producer of IKON Stúdió Egyesület. The film, recently finished with the support of the British Embassy in Budapest, pays tribute to Jane Haining (1897 Dunscore, Scotland – 1944 Auschwitz), the martyr matron of the Girls’ Home of the Scottish Mission in Budapest. The documentary was filmed in Budapest and Scotland, […]
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16th October 2014
16 October is Blog Action day. And this year’s theme is inequality. So here’s a blog about inequality. Tackling inequality is an important part of UK foreign policy. Two of our six human rights priorities are specifically about inequality, including women’s rights and freedom of religion and belief. For us, the promotion and protection of […]
10th October 2014 Brasilia, Brazil
Today is the 10th of October, the day we celebrate the World Day Against Death Penalty. The day that we join the international community and peers around the world to reaffirm together that the capital punishment has no place in the 21st century. The day that we position ourselves against this practice which, despite popular […]
1st October 2014 Geneva, Switzerland
I don’t get much time to read any books of my own these days. With two young children, most of the literature that comes my way tends either to have sparkly shapes, no more than about 10 words a page or contain clearly accessible lessons in morality. Which makes them the exact opposite of Human […]
26th September 2014 London, UK
It’s not always easy to promote human rights in China. But people do care. In particular, our statements supporting LGBT rights always achieve a great deal of attention, most of which is very positive. This is despite China refusing to legally recognise same-sex couples and homosexuals face widespread stigma. On 6 September, Brian Davidson, our […]
18th August 2014 Budapest, Hungary
Guest blog by Ben Luckock, Head of Policy Team at the British Embassy in Budapest. Having read Theresa’s account of her two days at Sziget (Day1 and Day2), it was with great enthusiasm that I headed down to the Island of Freedom on Friday afternoon. Much of the mud had dried up and the […]
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15th August 2014 Budapest, Hungary
Guest blog by Theresa Bubbear, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Budapest. On Thursday the team and I headed back to Sziget for day 2 of our Embassy engagement. Budapest thoughtfully provided some British festival weather for us – it poured almost all day, and the mud came up as the rain came […]
14th August 2014 Budapest, Hungary
Guest blog by Theresa Bubbear, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Budapest. In 2012 I blogged about my first experience of Sziget. Yesterday I went back to see what was happening and what had changed. This year’s festival is bigger and better than ever, with 400,000 visitors expected and some top […]
13th August 2014
The following is a guest blog by Steve Townsend, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy to the Holy See On 13 August 1964, Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans made British judicial history, although not in a way they would have appreciated. They were the last people executed in the United Kingdom. Throughout the […]