23rd September 2011
Our Foreign Secretary has just written to thank Foreign Minister Martonyi for the outstanding help provided by the Hungarian Embassy in Tripoli over the past few tumultuous weeks. During this time, the Embassy has provided vital help and support to nationals from the UK and other EU countries – travel documents, practical advice and liaison […]
5th July 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
The Human Rights Council broke new ground this week and I ended up rather in the thick of it. On Tuesday, as part of the UK’s decision to do everything it can to hold the Gaddafi regime to account, the team in Geneva went after the 16 signatures needed from Human Rights Council members to […]
24th June 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
Life is full of unwritten rules which help determine the limits of acceptable behaviour and which help you avoid making embarrassing and sometimes costly mistakes. The peculiar world of the Human Rights Council is no exception. No one tells you these little bits of conventional wisdom like, don’t deliver the first 2 minutes of your […]
6th June 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
There’ve been some major changes since I last updated my blog. I’ll start with the most important, which is that I became a dad for the first time in early March. Funnily enough, my son Ben was born on the Human Rights Council’s annual day on the rights of the child which has reinforced an […]
19th April 2011
Last week I went down to Romania’s naval base at Constanta to visit the frigate ‘King Ferdinand’ as it makes its final preparations for ‘Operation Unified Protector’, the NATO led operation to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya. The ‘Ferdinand’ has a distinguished record of service in similar operations, notably ‘Operation Active Endeavour’ – […]
22nd March 2011
As I write, British military forces are engaged – with partners from many other countries – in enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1973 over Libya. No country takes military action lightly. It is always a last resort. But as I wrote in La Razon on 22 March, the United Kingdom believes that the action to […]
1st March 2011 Geneva, Switzerland
These are heady days at the Human Rights Council. On the back of Friday’s firm action on Libya, senior figures from around the world descended on Geneva today for the start of the Council’s March session. It’s the first time so many leading politicians have come to the Council and with them came the world’s […]
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