Human Rights and Democracy - Official Documents

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Women’s rights Women in Afghanistan continued to face huge challenges throughout 2010, including high illiteracy rates, domestic violence, forced marriages, poor access to healthcare and lack of livelihoods. However, some encouraging gains were also made. Women played a full and active role in the June Consultative Peace Jirga – an event hosted by the Afghan government to gain the support of the Afghan people for their reconciliation and reintegration proposals – where they made up almost 25% of all participants. There are nine female members of the High Peace Council, including at least one woman on each subcommittee. In the parliamentary elections, women won 69 seats in the Lower House, breaking through the constitutional quota of 68. The Afghan government has pledged to improve the situation of women through its conference commitments and efforts to include women in the political process. However, there remains much to be done by the government to promote women’s rights in Afghanistan and, particularly, to improve the lives of women in rural communities across the country. The London and Kabul Conference communiqués contained clear commitments on women’s rights, including implementing a National Priority Programme for Human Rights and Civic Responsibilities and the implementation of the National Action Plan for Women and the law on elimination of violence against women. Committed implementation of these programmes and legislation will be key to ensuring improvements over the next few years. We continued to work closely with Afghan women’s rights advocates to improve the status of women in Afghanistan. In 2010 we supported a Kabul women’s legal aid centre run by the NGO Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan, which provides legal assistance to female and child victims of violence and discrimination. As part of our work to empower Afghan women, we funded a project to provide support to female parliamentary candidates. The year 2010 was also the final year of the UK’s five-year women’s empowerment project with Womankind Worldwide in Afghanistan. The UK’s National Action Plan on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security was launched on 25 November and contained a specific country action plan for Afghanistan. This plan sets out how our defence, diplomatic and development work in Afghanistan will 129
educe the impact of conflict on women and girls and promote their inclusion in conflict resolution. In addition to project funding, we continued to press the Afghan government to implement national and international human rights commitments, including the law on elimination of violence against women and the UN Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. We also continued to support progress on women’s rights through the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Justice’s Human Rights Support Unit. We also provided assistance to human rights civil society groups in Helmand Province. We provided infrastructure support to the Helmand office of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and mentoring and legal awareness training to elders and mullahs, including the Justice Sub-Committee members of district community councils. Children’s rights There have been some improvements in the situation of children in Afghanistan in recent years. According to the Afghan Ministry of Education there are currently more than 7 million school students in Afghanistan, of whom 38% are girls. In 2010, 135,000 children enrolled in schools across Helmand Province, a 250% increase on the previous year. Child mortality rates are down with more than 80% of children now reaching their fifth birthday, compared to approximately 75% in 2005. We fully support the UN’s work to protect children in armed conflict in Afghanistan, including the establishment of an in-country monitoring team to investigate children’s rights, including the sexual abuse of children. This monitoring mission has the full backing of the Afghan government. Prosecution of a small number of cases of child sexual abuse has been reported by the UN, and more initiatives, including studies on this issue, are being developed. Conflict and protection of civilians Afghanistan has suffered from three decades of conflict and currently faces an insurgency in several parts of the country. Operations by the International Security 130
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United Kingdom Foreign & Commonweal
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© Crown copyright 2011 You may re-
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Guantanamo Bay 53 Counter-prolifera
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Foreword by Foreign Secretary Willi
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Foreword by Minister of State Jerem
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SECTION I: Promoting British Values
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legislation and practices, includin
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Domestic observation also plays an
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Georgia, Uganda, Mozambique and Leb
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surge in abductions: 51 reporters w
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The Government publicly launched it
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prevent their execution. We also wo
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prison management by those who atte
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We also offered political and pract
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Special Tribunal for Lebanon During
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Freedom to practise religion in Aze
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protect concepts or specific belief
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The UK was keenly involved during 2
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criminalise homosexuality. And in M
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what progress has been made. And to
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Dalits still continue to face discr
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Roma The Government remains concern
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Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues Sir
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Andrew presented the revised UK cou
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SECTION II: Human Rights in Safegua
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x end the indiscriminate use of ter
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All individuals have the right to a
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x an inquiry to examine whether, an
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Counter-proliferation The Governmen
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the use of these munitions in futur
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departments to ensure that the reso
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those in camps. Successes included
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Kashmiri people. We also call for a
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The Responsibility to Protect At th
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For the first time the strategy dra
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affected countries. At the end of 2
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SECTION III: Human Rights in Promot
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ights and democratic principles sho
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three international conventions lis
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emedies by victims of human rights
Page 81 and 82: Indonesian Voluntary Principles par
Page 83 and 84: A new Bribery Act received Royal As
Page 85 and 86: efuse an application, consideration
Page 87 and 88: One particular case arose in July,
Page 89 and 90: and an education programme for scho
Page 91 and 92: cases or linking child abduction to
Page 93 and 94: The UK sees the Commonwealth as an
Page 95 and 96: to health. We abstained on the Gene
Page 97 and 98: priorities ahead of the 2011 review
Page 99 and 100: The European Union The EU’s econo
Page 101 and 102: With support from several other mem
Page 103 and 104: continue to communicate the achieve
Page 105 and 106: David Morris visited Albania in 201
Page 107 and 108: the EU announced the launch of 10 n
Page 109 and 110: persons continue to face severe cha
Page 111 and 112: to enable Commonwealth countries to
Page 113 and 114: Despite these difficulties the UK w
Page 115 and 116: SECTION VI: Promoting Human Rights
Page 117 and 118: the end of 2011. Similar training w
Page 119 and 120: Almost all populated Overseas Terri
Page 121 and 122: families, which addressed their rol
Page 123 and 124: Afghanistan The Afghan government,
Page 125 and 126: appropriate, convict insurgents and
Page 127 and 128: structures throughout the Afghan po
Page 129 and 130: cases, UK-captured detainees have a
Page 131: Television and radio stations, webs
Page 135 and 136: Belarus After some small steps towa
Page 137 and 138: Death penalty Belarus is the only r
Page 139 and 140: 2000. The Belarusian authorities ha
Page 141 and 142: Burma The year 2010 saw the first e
Page 143 and 144: under the new constitution, 25% of
Page 145 and 146: leaking confidential information. T
Page 147 and 148: Surveillance of the Burmese Buddhis
Page 149 and 150: We regularly raised the need for di
Page 151 and 152: DFID and our Embassy reinforced civ
Page 153 and 154: Our high commission staff from neig
Page 155 and 156: Death penalty The death penalty rem
Page 157 and 158: Chad are Islam (52%), Christianity
Page 159 and 160: Conflict Since the comprehensive vi
Page 161 and 162: China China has made huge progress
Page 163 and 164: 2010. One ended with the execution
Page 165 and 166: has continued. Under this system po
Page 167 and 168: Liu Xiaobo, who is currently servin
Page 169 and 170: We believe that the special tribuna
Page 171 and 172: Colombia The tone of the national d
Page 173 and 174: clear majority -14 of 16 judges - w
Page 175 and 176: Presidential Programme on Human Rig
Page 177 and 178: igade in Apartadó and the Chargée
Page 179 and 180: Elections Cuba held municipal elect
Page 181 and 182: The Cuban government also released
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Democratic People’s Republic of K
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developed juvenile justice system.
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The World Food Programme remains co
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engaged with the relevant DRC autho
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Prisons and detention issues Prison
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ather than a source of protection.
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Conflict The DRC has suffered the e
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Eritrea The real lack of progress o
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estimates are in the tens of thousa
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drought and to promote the voluntar
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Iran The year 2010 was marked by a
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We were deeply concerned about the
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continued to execute those who comm
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epeatedly called on the Iranian gov
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and for continuing her work as a la
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The Iranian authorities also contin
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Women continued to be at the forefr
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Protection of civilians Iran is hom
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Iraq The year 2010 saw the governme
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Death penalty The death penalty con
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Prison facilities in Iraq remained
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twice as high as in men in rural ar
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adly treated by the Iraqi authoriti
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One of the key tools we have to pro
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Palestinian Authority security forc
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states of the EU in the December 20
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already scarce water supplies and r
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Israeli NGO Hamoked, many of those
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“Today marks the fourth anniversa
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Death penalty The Libyan penal code
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government on a regular basis throu
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In June Libya asked the UN High Com
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ights commitments is integral to en
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to terrorism in Pakistan in 2010, w
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atifying it. It had also not amende
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government to account, although som
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parliamentarians and activists, we
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Caucasus depends on human rights be
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However, events in 2010 demonstrate
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Caucasus region, particularly in Ch
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freely. But the vagueness of the la
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security situation in Ingushetia re
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Saudi Arabia Many of our concerns a
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In October 2008 King Abdullah launc
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The Saudi Ministry of Interior is c
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The National Dialogue, which was la
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In April, a court in Buraidah was r
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Somalia The Transitional Federal Go
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Programme in training more judges,
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Throughout 2010 al-Shabaab imposed
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Puntland. However, in Somaliland, v
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Sri Lanka The number of reports of
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approximately 65,000 cases. As a co
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also held in the same facilities as
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prison sentence, he lost his seat a
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Monitoring groups reported that dur
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Women’s rights Sri Lanka has an e
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north by the Liberation Tigers of T
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missing relatives. A smaller number
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Sudan This is a critical time for S
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Promoting human rights in South Sud
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In the South there were numerous re
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Rule of law The administration of j
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independent newspapers have experie
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Children’s rights The Child Act w
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Syria Widespread violations of huma
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themselves. Prisoners were not allo
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27 July. There has been no response
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Women’s rights The Syrian constit
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Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a sign
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Torture and other ill treatment The
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eligion and belief was one of a num
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areas, and to support parliamentary
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Defenders of Uzbekistan claimed tha
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defamation related to his work for
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Women’s rights Gender discriminat
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Vietnam Freedom of expression and p
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and appeal hearings and to visit pr
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Torture and other ill treatment In
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and Cu Huy Ha Vu, who was charged w
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Children’s rights Human trafficki
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Yemen The government of Yemen faced
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We will also offer the government d
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officials raised their concerns abo
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Zimbabwe The human rights environme
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improvement in human rights and gov
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Human rights defenders The state ha
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Artists also faced harassment in 20
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Human Rights and Democracy - Official Documents

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