Recommendation 3

The FCDO has a policy of not commenting on, or interfering with, a foreign state’s legal system. Evidence suggests that the existence of an opinion from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that a British national is illegally detained makes little or no tangible difference to the way the FCDO approaches resolving that case. This is counterproductive and risks undermining an important tool, as well as the Government’s commitment to a Rules-Based International Order based solution for ending this practice.