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Human Rights Annual Report 2005

It is good to see the Minister in his place, particularly after his recent difficulties. I wish him every success in his new job. We heard two excellent speeches from members of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, namely the hon. Member for Ilford, South (Mike Gapes), the Committee Chairman, and my right hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and Malling (Sir John Stanley). Indeed, everyone who has taken part in the debate has made an excellent speech, including the right hon. Member for Oxford, East (Mr. Smith) and the hon. Members for Oxford, West and Abingdon (Dr. Harris) and for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn). I pay tribute to the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. It was a big subject to be tackled by a Select Committee, but it showed the highest quality in its debates, its taking of evidence and its reporting. As the hon. Gentleman said, the Committee is now bigger and to get a unanimous agreement among 13 members takes some doing. Among other things, the hon. Member for Ilford, South mentioned Guantanamo Bay and extraordinary rendition, as did other hon. Members. We all want to see those held at Guantanamo Bay brought to trial and acquitted or sentenced as soon as possible. Justice delayed is justice denied, and that applies particularly there. The Government have made it clear on a number of occasions that they abide by all the conventions on torture and that they will not use torture in any theatre. However, the question of intelligence gained from torture is slightly difficult. One often does not know where intelligence comes from, and even if one does know, it may be obscured. Even if one suspects that information has come from torture, if it could save British lives or the lives of our allies, I would have thought that the Government had a duty to use it. I therefore slightly take issue with the hon. Gentleman in that respect. The hon. Gentleman mentioned some of the worst human rights abuses—namely those in Burma and Syria—but he also mentioned the newly arising human rights problem in Sri Lanka. That is a wonderful and civilised country, with the assets of beauty, historical artefacts and a wonderful, gentle people. It is sad to see it disintegrating into chaos. The international community needs to think carefully about what it can do, because the problem should be capable of being solved. My right hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and Malling rightly drew attention to the appalling situation in Zimbabwe perpetrated by its President, Robert Mugabe. My right hon. Friend mentioned Operation Murambatsvina, the so-called ““clear the filth”” operation—that is what Murambatsvina means—and he alluded to the aerial photographs being taken before and after that operation. It was an appalling act of atrocity. Not only did Mugabe’s Government perpetrate that atrocity, but when some of the international community tried to provide tents, the tents too were seized by the armed forces. That shows how little regard for human life President Mugabe has. What limited food supplies that country has have been manipulated and given to his supporters, and he has ensured that those who do not support him have gone hungry. That is appalling, given that that country used to be the bread basket of Africa and that it exported its food all over the world. My right hon. Friend mentioned the visit that he led so ably to Nepal. I am delighted, as I am sure he is, that the political situation there seems to have stabilised, at least for the moment. That is a great relief to everyone. I hope that the interim Government hold elections in the near future and become properly elected, and that they manage to take over all the institutions of state and run a proper, democratic regime—including taking over the army, so that it will be possible to equip it in a way that will allow the Maoist threats to be defeated. We discovered while we were there that the army has great difficult in moving about the country. It does not have enough helicopters or the wherewithal to control acts of terrorism, especially in the more remote parts in the west of the country. I hope that the situation continues to stabilise. My right hon. Friend also mentioned the Sanischere camps in Nepal, of which there are seven. It was good to see that the international NGO community is running those camps to the highest possible standards. As he said, it ought to be possible to come to a conclusion and ensure that those people are properly settled, wherever it may be. They could be returned to Bhutan—I have been there and discussed the situation with the Bhutanese Foreign Minister. The Nepalese could be resettled in their own country, and offers of help have been made to resettle them in third countries. It seems that that situation has a possible solution. My right hon. Friend mentioned in vivid terms the human rights abuses going on in Iraq, and he questioned the future of our troops there. He was right to do so. We must all think of what we are achieving in Iraq and whether by being there we are helping the formation of democracy or acting as a magnet for further terrorism by making the various groups united in their opposition to what they see as western occupiers. The right hon. Member for Oxford, East rightly drew attention to the Papua New Guinea problem. It is not often aired on the world stage, but human rights abuses are going on there. The Indonesians are our friends and we ought to be able to impress on them that inflicting killings and other extra-judicial abuses on the people there is not acceptable; we should be able to find to a solution to that conflict. He also mentioned in vivid terms human rights abuses in China. These days, we have huge trade contacts with China and it ought to be possible for trade Ministers, when dealing with trade issues, also to emphasise that such human rights abuses are not acceptable. The hon. Member for Islington, North mentioned the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is the point at which I want to come to what I had prepared to say today. I want to say one or two things about the council and one or two of the other things that the hon. Gentleman mentioned. Our parents and grandparents witnessed the full horrors of the second world war and with that experience came their determination to set up, through their leaders, organisations to ensure that such atrocities never occurred again. The United Nations and its agencies created legally binding conventions, such as the Vienna convention on torture, for that purpose, but for some reason those are rarely implemented nowadays. The advance of the modern media is leading to greater news gathering capacity, and one might perceive that human rights abuses are worse nowadays than historically. I am not sure that that is the case, given some of the dreadful atrocities of the 20th century—Stalin’s gulags, Pol Pot’s killing fields and Germany’s concentration camps. Nevertheless, any single human rights abuse is one too many. More effective action could be taken through the United Nations, although it is clear that all nations must co-operate better to prevent human rights abuses. As I mentioned in my intervention, it is no good if, under the current United Nations structure, any one of the permanent five members of the Security Council can, because of their own economic interests, veto action that could prevent human rights abuses. There have been many obvious examples. Purely because of their oil interests, Russia and France vetoed strong action against the Government of Saddam Hussein. We need not only stronger co-operation within the United Nations, but stronger co-operation between the member nations and other organisations that could help in the human rights field—for example, the European Union, NATO, the African Union, the Commonwealth and the Organisation of American States. Late last year, during a visit to the United Nations with a number of colleagues from all parties, I was particularly pleased to hear about the creation of the UN Human Rights Council, which replaces the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. However, as the hon. Member for Islington, North said, it has shortcomings. The resolution at the summit that set it up requires that when member states vote for HRC members, they should merely take into account a candidate’s human rights record. Worse, the resolution set a higher bar—two thirds of the General Assembly—for suspending an elected member of the HRC. As we heard when we were there, trying to get a resolution from two thirds of all 190 nations of the General Assembly takes some doing. There are further shortcomings in the Human Rights Council: there are no criteria for membership of it; the peer review mechanism would not automatically affect eligibility for membership; there is only minimal reduction in membership from that of the old UNCHR; the resolution significantly shifts the balance of power away from the western regional group; and finally, the special sessions can be called by only one third of the council’s membership. As has been indicated, the report was wide-ranging. I should like to touch on one or two of the general mechanisms, but I am not going to dwell too much on any individual country’s human rights problems. In paragraphs 90 and 96, the report mentions the problems of military exports and international arms trade treaties in respect of the perpetration of human rights. I supported the Export Control Act 2002. In recent years, legislation has also introduced controls on the transfer of technology and the provision of technical assistance that may be used in connection with weapons of mass destruction. I also support the proposed international arms trade treaty. We do not always follow up on what human rights abuses are perpetrated by arms that have been exported under arms licences. We have sold Hawk jets to Indonesia, but did not see what the Indonesians were using them for. Sometimes, when we suspect that human rights abuses are being perpetrated, we need to ensure that the military export licence is being adhered to properly. In paragraph 100, the report also makes it clear that we have a duty of corporate social responsibility, and I share the Committee’s concerns on the subject. We do business with many countries that have appalling human rights records and we need, by our own example—in this country, we have some of the highest corporate standards—to say to such countries that they need to do better. As I said in an intervention, we particularly need to remind countries, such as China, which does business with countries with some of the worst human rights records—for example, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Venezuela and Iran—that it too should encourage higher standards of corporate social responsibility. If China, and Russia, wish to exercise their positions as world states, they should uphold such corporate social responsibilities. Paragraph 82 and those that follow make it clear that one of the ways to prevent human rights abuses is through democracy, and I totally agree with that. In 1975, Freedom House found that only 40 nations of the world were democracies; today, it cites more than 89—twice the number in 30 years. If a country is a democracy, it does not exercise some of the arbitrary abuses of human rights that non-democracies do. We need to work much more closely to encourage democracy. There are some democratic and human rights successes in the world. The report might imply that the world is all doom and gloom in respect of human rights abuses, but there have been successes. For example, millions of people in Afghanistan defied the threats of Taliban supporters and turned out en masse to elect a President in 2004 and their new representatives to a new Parliament last September. In Iraq, people defied insurgents’ fearmongering and voted to adopt a permanent constitution last October, and in December, more than 75 per cent. of those eligible voted for their National Assembly, despite all the threats to their lives and well-being. As has been mentioned, one year ago this month, Syrian troops pulled out of Lebanon after massive demonstrations and after the cedar revolution that had followed tainted elections and the killing of a popular leader. As the report makes clear, the people spoke in Ukraine’s orange revolution, in Georgia’s rose revolution of 2003 and in the bulldozer revolution in Serbia, which brought Milosevic down in 2000. So it is not all doom and gloom in the world; there are some successes. Before I conclude, I should like to dwell on one or two other aspects. The relationship between aid and human rights abuses needs to be examined carefully. Under Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank has shown what can be achieved by taking that approach into account. Like Wolfowitz, I worry about the growth of corruption in Kenya, and the World Bank has suspended five loans to that country. In January, Mr. Wolfowitz suspended all loans to Chad when its President decided to disregard an agreement with the World Bank designed to ensure that oil revenues would not be misused. The Department for International Development needs to examine carefully how it allocates aid towards democracy building. It should set clear targets and make it clear that if countries do not meet them, the aid will be cut, but that if they do meet them, the aid will be increased. I also feel that we made a mistake with the Hamas-led Palestine Government following the recent election in that country. Cutting off all aid leaves us little or no negotiating power with that Government; one always needs a few levers of power to carry on negotiations with one’s adversary. Finally, I turn to the International Criminal Court, mentioned by my right hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and Malling and in paragraph 28 of the report. The court is important and we need to consider it. My right hon. Friend is right that if tyrants and dictators like Robert Mugabe feel that there is an effective international court mechanism, that if they are convicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, there is a high likelihood that they will be brought before a successfully operating international court, and that that court has the teeth to give out a severe sentence—a life sentence that means life—there might just be some deterrent effect on them. It is a scandal that Charles Taylor is still free because of arguments about the jurisdictions in which he should be tried and, if he is found guilty and sentenced—as he undoubtedly will be—imprisoned. We need to concentrate carefully on that. It is worth mentioning Foreign and Commonwealth Office policy. We often underestimate the effect of the contacts that our officials have all over the world. They meet officials right up to heads of state of all sorts of regimes. We should be and could be at least as effective as we are now, and it is regrettable that due to budgetary considerations some of our embassies have been closed in recent years. For example, four out of five of the central American diplomatic missions have been closed. There have been cuts in staff and facilities in other embassies around the world. That is a false economy for the small amount of money that it saves. In the case of the central American embassies, it was probably less than £1 million. I wish to close by quoting article 1 of the universal declaration of human rights, which probably sums up this entire debate and our approach to human rights abuses. It states:"““All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.””" That absolutely sums up what we are all about. I again applaud the Chairman of the Select Committee for his excellent report. I hope that he will go on doing this work and holding the Government to account in the way that he did with the report.