Letter from Sir Emyr Parry Jones, REDRESS Chair, to the Foreign Affairs Committee, submitting evidence to its Annual Inquiry into the FCO’s Human Rights work

Redress has submitted an open letter to the Foreign Affairs Committee, following an invitation to participate in the FAC’s annual inquiry into the human rights work of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This letter focuses on the 2010 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Report, ‘Human Rights and Democracy’.

This report clearly evidences the problems posed in condemning torture within countries whom are allied with the UK, such as Suadi Arabia, which has a history of torturing British Citizens. Sir Emyr recommends that the report put greater focus on the issue of torture in such countries as an ongoing and systematic problem, and calls for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to take a more consistent approach when drawing attention towards torture practices abroad, in order to be universally consistent on the UK’s anti-torture obligations.