PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Human Rights (16 December 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what criteria his Department uses to determine whether a country should feature as (a) a case study and (b) a country of concern in its annual Human Rights and Democracy report.

Asked by:
Kerry McCarthy (Labour)

As set out in the 2012 and 2013 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Reports on Human Rights and Democracy, the criteria we use to determine whether a country should feature as a country of concern are the following:

• the gravity of the human rights situation in the country, including both the severity of particular abuses and the range of human rights affected;
• whether a deterioration or improvement in the human rights situation in the country would have a wider impact in the region;
• whether the human rights situation in the country has an impact on wider UK interests; and
• whether we are able to influence the human rights situation there.

Our assessment of the gravity of the human rights situation in the country is the most important assessment that we make when identifying the countries of concern, and is not affected by levels of UK interest or influence. Only after assessing this, do we then apply an analysis of our other criteria, including UK engagement and interests as a means of influencing change. A large number of countries have serious human rights issues, and so it is right that we concentrate our limited resources on those countries where we can make most difference.

Country case studies were introduced in 2012 as a way to report on countries which do not meet the overall threshold for a country of concern, but which we judge nonetheless to be facing human rights challenges, or to be on a trajectory of change with regard to their human rights performance.

Answered by:
Sir David Lidington (Conservative)
5 January 2015