Tag: 2023

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 11 July 2023.

Statement by Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on Syria chemical weapons.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 11 July 2023.

Minister attends state reception and announces that the UK will publish its historic archives.

British Minister David Rutley, UK Minister for the Americas and Caribbean, visited The Bahamas to attend the state reception, joining the 50th anniversary celebrations of Bahamian independence.

He congratulated the Governor General, His Excellency Sir Cornelius Smith, and Prime Minister Honourable Philip Davis, on 50 years of economic development, national growth, and democratic strength.

Minister Rutley told the Prime Minister that the UK would digitise its National Archive materials relating to Independence, for the people of The Bahamas. The flag of The Bahamas also flew above Westminster Abbey, London, during a special service celebrating the 50th anniversary of independence.

As well as attending the state reception as official representative of the British Government, Minister Rutley met with Tony Myers, President of British company BHM, which will construct the new Freeport Airport, financed by UK Export Finance. Minister Rutley discussed the project and the jobs it will create locally, and the links it will strengthen with the UK. As part of the company’s dedication to support the long-term growth of The Bahamas, the Minister formally thanked Mr Myers for creating a Chevening Partnership, which allows Bahamians to study Masters courses in the UK with a full scholarship.

The Minister also met with the Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands, Her Excellency Dileeni Daniel-Selvaratnam and the Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands, Honourable Charles Washington Misick. The Minister discussed the opening of the new office of the Turks and Caicos government in The Bahamas, and congratulated the Premier on his initiative to connect with the diaspora of Turks and Caicos in The Bahamas. The Minister congratulated the Governor on her appointment. They discussed the islands’ preparations for hurricane season, and the presence of HMS Dauntless in the region, the UK’s designated hurricane-response ship this season.

This visit follows meetings with Prime Minister Philip Davis in London before the Coronation, and in Trinidad and Tobago during the 50th anniversary celebration of CARICOM. During their meeting at the State Reception, they discussed bilateral relations and the recent debate at the Security Council about Haiti, which the UK organised and chaired.

Americas Minister David Rutley said:

In the 50th year of Bahamian independence, it is my privilege to represent the British Government in celebrating your many achievements over the past decades.

The UK is committed to deepening our historic ties in areas of shared interest, including trade, security and climate, to ensure The Bahamas’ continued prosperity and success in the years ahead.

Over the last 50 years, it is clear that The Bahamas is a strong, safe, democratic nation, whose contribution to the world has been great. Throughout the last 50 years, and for the next 50 years, our partnership endures, built on a common language, common history, common legal system, common education, and common understanding of one other.

I very much enjoyed attending the state reception hosted by HE Sir Cornelius Alvin Smith, Governor General of The Bahamas at Government House, congratulations Bahamas – march on!

British High Commissioner Thomas Hartley said:

I was so pleased to welcome Minister Rutley to The Bahamas today, and meet many of the wonderful Bahamians who make this nation so great. Today I am pleased to announce, with Minister Rutley, that later this year the UK will publish over 60 documents from the-then Foreign Office’s and No10’s historic archive that reference The Bahamian journey to independence.

As pioneering archivists such as Gail Saunders have taught us all, we have a shared responsibility to help every citizen of Britain and The Bahamas to have the opportunity to access the documents that have recorded moments of history. We hope these documents will help underpin the knowledge and teaching of history, and honours the memory of Gail Saunders.

Background – publishing of Archives.

Documents referring to the independence of The Bahamas were declassified previously, and held in paper copy at The National Archives in Kew. Representing several thousands pages of historic documentation, these are being digitised now and will be available in The Bahamas later this year to allow audiences direct access.

This project comes after Prime Minster Philip Davis visited The National Archives in London before the Coronation. It follows a formal request made by the late George Smith MP to the High Commissioner, earlier this year.

The British High Commissioner will visit the Bahamas Archives on Tuesday 11th July to discuss the project with Director Patrice Williams.

Examples of some of the documents include (in alphabetical order):

• Bahamas Independence Constitution
• Bahamas independence celebrations
• Bahamas Independence Conference
• Bahamas: independence defence issues; United States bases in the Bahamas, Tripartite…
• opposition to Independence by Greater Abaco Action Committee of Bahamas
• ‘Bahamas Independence’, despatch from Charles James Treadwell, British High Commissioner, Nassau
• visit of Prince of Wales to Bahamas for Independence celebrations, 10 July 1973
• appointment of Sir Milo Broughton Butler as Governor-General of the Bahamas after independence
• ‘The Bahamas: Ten Years of Independence’, despatch from Peter Heap, British High Commissioner, Nassau;
• valedictory despatch by Sir John Paul, Governor of the Bahamas
• briefs for visit of Dr H Kissinger (Assistant to US President) to UK

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 11 July 2023.

UK Statement during urgent debate on “the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred” at the UN Human Rights Council.

Thank you Mr President.

Today’s urgent debate has been called following certain recent events in Europe, and, with regard to these, let me be crystal clear that the burning of the Quran is deeply insulting and completely inappropriate.

We recognise the deep hurt that has been felt by Muslims the world over including by so many British Muslims. And we recognise that we must all, collectively and individually, work harder to build mutual understanding, combat intolerance and hatred based on religion or belief, and address potential areas of tension between members of different communities.

Mr President, we agreed to today’s debate, precisely because we recognise how important – and sensitive – these issues are. And because we hoped that it would serve to build greater understanding between states and this Council.

In combatting religious intolerance, we must always be mindful that other rights must also be respected. The exercise of the right to freedom of expression is not unlimited.  But it is something we hold dear, and which can only be limited under very clear, narrowly defined parameters under international human rights law. HRC resolution 16/18 managed to navigate these difficult issues through a consensual and action-orientated framework. We believe that this resolution continues to offer the best way of addressing religious intolerance and stigmatisation in this Council.

Regrettably, Mr President, some members of this Council who called for today’s debate have, so far at least, not shown the same willingness to debate a certain other largescale, and in this case, state-sponsored manifestation of religious intolerance affecting a significant Muslim community. We hope that this will change in the future.

We thank our OIC colleagues for their willingness to engage over recent days on the resolution relating to today’s debate. We hope to safeguard the precious consensus that this Council has maintained over the past decade on combatting intolerance and hatred based on religion or belief.

Thank you Mr President.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 11 July 2023.

Explanation of vote by Ambassador Barbara Woodward at the UN Security Council meeting on Syria cross-border aid.

Colleagues, I join others in thanking Brazil and Switzerland for their work as penholders.

The Secretary-General was absolutely clear: he asked this Council to give humanitarians a 12 month mandate to deliver aid to 4.1 million people who desperately need it. The humanitarian partners who brief us regularly set out the case for this again, and again. Countries in the region too, who are directly impacted by the conflict in Syria, called for a 12 month mandate. And the partners I met on the ground, at the Syrian border, were clear: a 12 month mandate was a minimum lifeline, all the more so after February’s earthquakes.

The pens, and the majority of this Council, worked in good faith to try to deliver this.

Including an eleventh-hour compromise to try to find common ground.

But Russia has yet again used their veto to restrict life-saving humanitarian access to 4 million Syrian people. There is no rational or moral argument to veto this resolution.

Humanitarian access should respond to humanitarian need and should not be taken hostage by Russia.

Since 2014, Russia has chipped away at this humanitarian lifeline, year after year. Today, they have continued their efforts to restrict access to people in need.

As the UK, we will continue, as we have done every year, to put our humanitarian responsibility above politics.

We call on Russia to do the same.

We need to put the needs of the Syrian people first.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 11 July 2023.

Joint statement on oral update by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran. Delivered by Ambassador Shara Duncan Villalobos of Costa Rica.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 11 July 2023.

Statement by UK Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Joanna Roper, at the 103rd Executive Council.

As we gather here for the first Executive Council since the five year Review Conference, let me acknowledge all the efforts of so many who worked so hard to seek consensus and identify the important issues that we will continue to discuss this week. My thanks, too, to the Director General and his staff, and to Ambassador Fatu as he takes up the position of Chair of the Executive Council.

Mr Chair, distinguished delegates, the United Nations Secretary-General told us in his video statement at the Review Conference in May that the Chemical Weapons Convention has helped create a safer world for us all. Yet, with chemical weapons attacks taking place in recent times, each use threatens to reverse our hard-won gains. He added that “in the name of the victims of these attacks — and as a deterrent to future chemical warfare — those responsible for any use must be identified and held accountable for their crimes.” The United Kingdom wholeheartedly agrees. The work of the OPCW is just as important as ever.

Mr Chair, meticulous investigations have documented repeated uses of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, years after Syria claimed to have destroyed all its stockpiles. Denials and disinformation from the Assad regime and its Russian backers cannot disguise Syria’s failure to cooperate with the Technical Secretariat or to fulfil its wider commitments under the Convention. Without meaningful progress from Syria, its chemical weapons programme will continue to pose a threat to international security.

Mr Chair, five years ago this week, Dawn Sturgess tragically died in the United Kingdom after exposure to a Russian novichok nerve agent. This was a clear criminal act. Alexey Navalny was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent in Russia two years later.

Given Russia’s track record of chemical weapons use, there has long been concern that it could use chemical weapons in its unjustified and illegal invasion of Ukraine. Any use of chemical weapons by Russia in Ukraine would have severe consequences. We recall the Chemical Weapons Convention’s prohibition on the use of riot control agents as a method of warfare. The United Kingdom supports Ukraine’s efforts to protect itself against the threat of chemical weapons and to investigate possible use, noting the options set out in the Convention and in decisions of the policy-making organs.

Mr Chair, at the recent Review Conference, the vast majority of states parties demonstrated their continued commitment to a positive future agenda for the OPCW, and their confidence in the Technical Secretariat.

Organisational governance issues include geographic representation, gender equality and other forms of diversity, tenure policy and the budget, as well as the opportunities presented by the new ChemTech Centre. The United Kingdom looks forward to further discussion on these issues.

Finally, the United Kingdom congratulates the United States and the Technical Secretariat for completing the destruction of all US chemical weapon stockpiles. This is an important milestone, but not the end. The work of the OPCW is more important than ever. The United Kingdom remains committed to working with our partners to implement the Convention and move closer to our shared objective of a world free from chemical weapons.