It is inevitable that the UK will have strategic, commercial or security-related interests overseas which have the potential to conflict with its human rights work, says the Foreign Affairs Committee in a report published today. The Government should not be trying to assert that the two can co-exist freely: it should instead be explaining publicly its judgments on how to balance them in particular cases. The Committee's recommendation comes in the light of the FCO's decision not to designate Bahrain as a "country of concern" in its 2011 report on its human rights work, despite the repression of demonstrations in Bahrain in 2011. The Committee recommends that the criteria for designation should be based purely on assessments of human rights standards and should not be coloured by strategic or other considerations. The Committee also challenges the Government for being inconsistent in not taking a public stance on the Bahrain Grand Prix but boycotting group stage games at Euro 2012 in Ukraine. On rendition, the Committee finds that the protracted police investigations had an unacceptable impact on the work of the Gibson Inquiry and of relevant committees. The Government should explain why current investigations into claims of rendition made by two Libyans are expected to take so long. The Committee accepts that enough progress has been made in Burma to justify some relaxation of the EU's sanctions regime, but it says that Burma's human rights record remains seriously blemished. It recommends that the UK should call for better access to those still detained as political prisoners, and should press the Burmese authorities to allow independent observers to visit Rakhine state, to assess the extent to which the rights of the Rohingya minority are being respected.

The Foreign Affairs Committee believes the events of the 'Arab Spring' should stand as a reminder to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) that failing to take a stronger and more consistent stance against human rights violations by overseas regimes can carry risks for the UK. Any suggestion that the FCO downplays criticism of human rights abuses in countries with which the UK has close political and commercial links is damaging to the UK's reputation and undermines the department's overall work in promoting human rights overseas. The Committee is less confident than the FCO that there is little conflict between its simultaneous pursuit of both UK commercial interests and improved human rights standards overseas. The Committee heard concerns on this front with respect to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in particular. There should be a more robust and significantly more consistent position on human rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa. On China, the Committee finds it difficult to support the Government's approach to human rights engagement with China in the continuing absence of any evidence that it is yielding results, and when the human rights situation in China appears to be deteriorating. The Government should engage in more explicit, hard-hitting and consistent public criticisms of human rights abuses in China. The Committee welcomes the FCO's continued production of an annual human rights report and the Government's recognition that the UK's own human rights practices affect its international reputation and ability to pursue improvements in human rights standards overseas.

This book maps changing definitions of statehood in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus as a result of their exclusion from an expanding Europe. The authors examine the perceptions of the place of each state in the international political system and its foreign policy choices, and draw comparisons across the region.

Fully revised to incorporate recent developments, this third edition of Understanding Global Security analyses the variety of ways in which people's lives are threatened and/or secured in contemporary global politics. The traditional focus of Security Studies texts: war, deterrence and terrorism, are analysed alongside non-military security issues such as famine, crime, disease, disasters, environmental degradation and human rights abuses to provide a comprehensive survey of how and why people are killed in the contemporary world. New to this edition: Greater coverage of the evolving theoretical literature on security, including more analysis of critical theory perspectives and emerging schools of thought. A revamp of the sections examining the causes of inter-state war and counter-terrorism strategies. Analysis of key recent developments including the global economic recession, Haiti earthquake of 2010 and Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011. New quantitative analysis of the impact of global crime and environmental change. Greater evaluation of the divergences in how human security is interpreted and the future prospects for this way of thinking and acting in international relations. User-friendly and easy to follow, this textbook is designed to make a complex subject accessible to all. Key features include: ‘Top ten’ tables highlighting the most destructive events or forms of death in that areas throughout history. Boxed descriptions elaborating key concepts in the fields of security and International Relations. ‘Biographical boxes’ of key individuals who have shaped security politics. Further reading and websites at the end of each chapter guiding you towards the most up-to-date information on the various topics. Glossary of political terminology. This highly acclaimed and popular academic text will continue to be essential reading for everyone interested in security.

Fully revised and updated, this comprehensive guide to diplomacy explores the art of negotiating international agreements and the channels through which such activities occur when states are in diplomatic relations, and when they are not. This new edition includes chapters on secret intelligence and economic and commercial diplomacy.

This book explores the foreign and security policies of Germany, France and the UK vis-à-vis China. Despite the progress made by the Lisbon Treaty and notwithstanding the first EU Global Strategy, the European Union does not have a strategy to address the rise of China. Since this strategic deficit does not automatically reflect the level of EU member states, this book argues that the vacuum at EU level provides member states with an opportunity to fill this gap. By assuming that an increase in national policies on China would eventually lead to a comprehensive European strategy for China, the author focuses on the three biggest European countries and looks at the rise of China to understand the development of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy vis-à-vis the PRC. While the CFSP depends on the contribution of EU member states, their role in shaping the CFSP towards China has not been researched yet, and this book fills the gap.

This collection of chapters tracks and explains the impact of the nine core United Nations human rights treaties in 20 selected countries, four from each of the five UN regions. Researchers based in each of these countries were responsible for the chapters, in which they assess the influence of the treaties and treaty body recommendations on legislation, policies, court decisions and practices. By covering the 20 years between July 1999 and June 2019, this book updates a study done 20 years ago.

This book takes a problem-based approach to explore the dilemmas that arise when the law and social work ethics conflict. It highlights what the law says, what ethical principles are at stake, and what these imply for policy and practice, helping students to develop an understanding of the issues involved.

Brice Dickson examines the engagement of the United Kingdom with international human rights monitoring mechanisms, in particular those operated by the United Nations and the Council of Europe since 2000. Dickson explores how these mechanisms work in practice and whether they have any identifiable impact on how human rights are protected in the UK.