Kerry McCarthy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions on (a) collective action to promote human rights and (b) accountability for violations of the Commonwealth Charter were held at the Commonwealth Law Ministers’ Meeting in May 2014.

Mr Hugo Swire

The Commonwealth Law Ministers discussed a wide range of issues relating to human rights, rule of law and preventing violence against women, as well as the Commonwealth’s activities in these areas, during their meeting in May 2014. We welcomed their acknowledgement that a number of challenges and gaps remain in the Commonwealth, particularly in members’ ratification of the nine core international human rights treaties, their engagement with the United Nations Universal Periodical Review (UPR) mechanism and in their establishment of national human rights institutions compliant with the Paris Principles.

The UK underlined the need for the Commonwealth and its members to adhere to the values and principles in the Commonwealth Charter at all times and secured improved wording in the final communiqué – not least agreement that the fundamental values of the Commonwealth Charter must be taken into account in the context of work to tackle violence against women and a commitment to review implementation of the Latimer House Principles.

We continue to encourage the Commonwealth Secretariat and member states to uphold the commitments in the Commonwealth Charter. We also continue to urge the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, as the custodian of Commonwealth values, to take action where infringments of the charter occur.