UNA-UK has submitted evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee's inquiry on human rights.
The ongoing Commons Select Committee inquiry focuses on the administration and funding of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) human rights programmes. During a related inquiry in October last year, a senior FCO official informed Parliament that human rights was "not one of our top priorities". UNA-UK chose to focus on the potential consequences of this apparent deprioritisation, its place in a wider trend threatening the UK's commitment to human rights and its implications for Britain's international reputation.
In the submission, UNA-UK argues that the UK's reputation on human rights contributes to its soft power and international influence. The UK's reputation is put at risk if there is a perception that it has failed to live up to these standards, or has "downgraded" them. Since the UK has had a prominent role in setting global human rights standards internationally, such a perception may undermine the strength of these standards more broadly.
The submission expresses concern for the UK's current trade relations with Saudi Arabia during the conflict in Yemen, as well as alarm at the tone of its domestic debates on human rights. The submission notes that the FCO's work does not take place in a vaccuum and that other states take notice of the UK's engagement with human rights both domestically and internationally. Public inconsistencies have the potential to erode the UK's reputation and influence on human rights issues and could hamper its ability to further its interests at the UN and in other international fora.
UNA-UK argues that the UK should be a human rights champion both nationally and internationally, striving for an unimpeachable record that helps to strengthen the rules based international system it has worked hard to build.
The Foreign Affaris Committee is still taking oral evidence and will publish its report in the coming months.
