The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights Work inquiry

Published 23 November 2018.

The Government "notes" the Committee's report and responds to each conclusion, setting out where it will continue existing work, where it will give "further consideration" to proposals, and where it does not consider the Committee's suggested approach helpful.

• On UN elections, the FCO says it "will continue to engage with parliamentary committees and other stakeholders as appropriate", including through updates on the five-year plan for multilateral elections. It will "confirm when the UK will next run for re-election to the HRC" as part of its election strategy.
• On a candidate for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the FCO and the Gender Equalities Office will give "further consideration" to nominating a candidate for the 2020 election when nominations are invited. No firm commitment is made.
• The Government does not accept that separating out rule of law activity would help. It says it does "not, therefore, believe it would be helpful or indeed informative" to do so, and that setting measurable objectives for UN human rights diplomacy "is not easy".
• On human rights clauses in trade deals, it says it is "exploring all possible options in the design of future trade and investment agreements". On Turkey, it notes that Turkey "is not currently an HRPC" and that it "will continue to have the option" to refer to it in future reports.

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