Tag: Foreign Office

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 25 September 2023.

Statement by Lord (Tariq) Ahmad at the UN Tuberculosis High-Level Meeting on ending tuberculosis.

I thank the President of the General Assembly and distinguished colleagues from Poland and Uzbekistan for your leadership on this summit and its political declaration.

In 2015 the world committed to ending TB by 2030.

Now is the right time to come together and reaffirm our commitment to end TB, and our collective action to make that happen.

The UK welcomes the declaration made at this meeting and the commitments in it.

We know that investments against TB can strengthen health systems and support us to achieve universal health coverage.

They can help us to prepare for future pandemics.

And they can help us in the fight against Anti-Microbial Resistance.

I am proud of the UK’s record in the fight against TB.

The UK is the third largest donor to the Global Fund investing over four and a half billion pounds over the last twenty years.

Our latest £1 billion pledge will provide TB treatment and care for over a million people and screen twenty million.

We have reduced the price and improved access to key drugs through our support to Unitaid, the Clinton Health Access Initiative and MedAccess.

And I’m very pleased that on Monday our Foreign Secretary acknowledged the importance of research, with a further £5 million to the TB alliance to support the development of new treatments.

This brings our funding to nearly £70 million over 6 years.

The TB Alliance has already brought revolutionary new treatments to market – more than a million courses of children’s medicines have been delivered to 123 countries.

And their new treatment for drug resistant-TB is quicker, more effective, has fewer side effects and is estimated to save up to 43,000 more lives by 2025.

We are also taking action to tackle TB in the UK.

Despite falling cases, TB remains a risk to the most vulnerable, and progress towards elimination has stalled.

Drug resistance remains an issue and we are taking the lead in using genome sequencing to identify resistance patterns and ensure effective treatment.

And the UK Health Security Agency is working with partners to evaluate promising vaccine candidates.

Our efforts to improve global health will continue into 2024, with next year’s High-level Meeting on Anti-Microbial Resistance a landmark opportunity to tackle AMR on a truly global scale.

Thank you for your time today, and for your continued commitment to end this cruel disease.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 25 September 2023.

Statement for Interactive Dialogue with the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela. Delivered by UK Human Rights Ambassador, Rita French.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 25 September 2023.

UK statement for Interactive Dialogue with the International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine. Delivered by the UK’s Ambassador to the WTO & UN, Simon Manley.

Thank you, Mr President and welcome Commissioners.

A year ago, Russia attempted to annex Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, following its organisation of sham referendums on sovereign Ukrainian territory.

Since then, Russia’s attempts to consolidate control in these regions have been characterised by repression, violence and a total disregard for human life. Evidence, including that collected through the invaluable work of this Commission, shows widespread and systematic atrocities committed by Russian forces, many of which may amount to war crimes.

So, we have a simple message to Russia: we see through your farcical claims that this is a war of liberation. You can’t liberate people by shelling them, nor by torturing them, nor by deporting them and their children. Just as you can’t change borders by force – no matter how many sham referendums or elections you hold.

It is time to end this war and withdraw your forces – in line with your obligations under the Charter.

Commissioners, thank you from us all for the vital work over the last 16 months.

Ukrainian children have been relentlessly targeted as part of Russia’s efforts to erase Ukrainian identity and culture – including through their large-scale forced transfer and deportation to Russia and Russian-controlled territory.

So Commissioners, are you carrying out further investigations into the forcible transfer of children, including the widely reported use of so-called “summer camps” for systematic political indoctrination?

Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 25 September 2023.

UK and 38 other participating States mark the first anniversary of the 2022 Moscow Mechanism Report on the Russian Federation.

Mr Chair,

I am delivering this statement on behalf of the following participating States Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States, inter alia those that on 28 July 2022 invoked the Moscow (Human Dimension) Mechanism on the Threats to the Fulfilment of the Provisions of the Human Dimension Posed by Human Rights Violations and Abuses in the Russian Federation.

One year ago, the report released on 22 September under the Moscow Mechanism  revealed a clear link between internal repression of human rights and fundamental freedoms and external aggression:

“To start a war with another country, the elite must be sure that there will be no two-front war (with one front inside and one front outside the country). Therefore, restrictive measures are considered necessary in order not to be disturbed during the preparation for war or after it has started”.

Today, Professor Nußberger’s report sadly remains topical, as Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine continues unabated, and as the human rights situation in Russia has deteriorated further. Russia has continued its systemic curtailment of human rights and civic space through further dissolution of independent media, harassment of lawyers, arbitrary imprisonment of civic activists and human rights defenders, and closure of human rights organisations, including Memorial, Moscow Helsinki Group and the Sakharov Center. The wave of repressions against dissenting voices has continued, with an array of unjust and arbitrary sentences issued under the penal code imposed on persons who only exercised their human rights and fundamental freedoms: including those that exercised their freedom of expression, by sharing posts on social media or they exercised their right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. While in the past repression hit certain groups disproportionately, such as ethnic and religious minorities (e.g. Chechens, Jehovahs Witnesses), certain professions (journalists or opposition politicians) or persons belonging to particularly vulnerable groups (such as LGBTIQ persons), it is now a generalised phenomenon.

While larger organized protests have become impossible in Russia, there are still individuals across the country, who – in the face of omnipresent repression and the arbitrary application of Russia’s laws – continue to exercise their right to freedom of expression. Their attempts to oppose the Kremlin’s despotic regime are severely punished. Let me cite a few examples: Vladimir Kara-Murza (sentenced to 25 years), Alexey Navalny (whose term was extended to 19 years in August 2023), Ilya Yashin (sentenced to 8,5 years), Alexey Gorinov (sentenced to 7 years), Maria Ponomarenko (sentenced to 6 years), Olga Smirnova (sentenced to 6 years), but there are many others, such as Igor Paskar (sentenced to 8,5 years), Igor Baryshnikov (sentenced to 7,5 years), Oleg Belousov (sentenced to 5,5 years), Pavel Pekpaev (sentenced to 5,5 years), Parvinahan Abuzarova (sentenced to 3 years), and a number of others awaiting their trials in jail or currently on trial, such as Oleg Orlov, Evgeny Bestuzhev, Alexandra Skochilenko, Evgenia Berkovich, Svetlana Petriychuk, Konstantin Kochanov, Anna Bazhutova, Azat Miftakhov, and Pavel Stepanov. These are just a handful of the individual activists and bloggers that reports describe as targeted for repression simply for expressing opinions contrary to government propaganda and disinformation. An Orwellian dystopia is being realized before our eyes in Russia.

In August of this year, Memorial, a prominent human rights organisation, and a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, published a 200-page report on political repression in Russia in 2022. The report gives a grim overview of continuing repressions, thus illustrating and confirming the trends detailed in Prof. Nußberger’s report, including the conclusion that numerous Russian laws are clearly incompatible with the rule of law and provide the pretext for targeting opposition voices, resulting in ever intensifying repressions. Under what amounts to military censorship, anti-war protests are completely banned and the extensive application of an entire array of anti-extremism legislation since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has resulted in the use of ever harsher punishments, as the examples listed beforehand show.

We renew our appeal to Russia to uphold its international commitments and obligations on human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the OSCE principles and commitments. We call on Russia to release all the political prisoners immediately and unconditionally.

We call on the OSCE to continue giving priority to addressing the most critical issues in the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Russia that continue to seriously undermine democratic stability, peace and security throughout the OSCE region and could have even greater unpredictable consequences at national and international levels.

We continue to remind Russia of one of the cornerstones enshrined in the 1975 Helsinki Final Act. The universal significance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect is an essential factor for peace, justice and well-being. We will continue to support those civil society actors whose work accords with the values upon which the OSCE was founded.

Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 25 September 2023.

The UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade has appointed Martin Kent as His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner (HMTC) for Asia Pacific.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 22 September 2023.

UK statement for Interactive Dialogue on interim oral update of High Commissioner on human rights situation in Belarus in run-up to 2020 presidential election.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 22 September 2023.

UK Statement for the Interactive Dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, as delivered at the 54th UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 22 September 2023.

Joint Statement for the Interactive Dialogue with UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, as delivered by the UK’s Ambassador to the WTO and UN, Simon Manley.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 22 September 2023.

Statement for the Interactive Dialogue with UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria. As delivered by UK Ambassador to the WTO and UN, Simon Manley.

Thank you, Mr Vice President,

Thank you, Commissioners for your typically clear and detailed articulation of the human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity that so tragically persist in Syria.

We must heed the evidence: the conflict in Syria is not over. The deaths of thousands in the February earthquakes brought no respite from attacks on innocent people by the regime and its allies.

Life-saving humanitarian aid for the same people who face indiscriminate shelling is at the whim of the regime. Once again, permissions for humanitarian access expire abruptly in the peak of winter. The international community must work together to seek sustainable, unhindered, immediate humanitarian access to those most in need.

Meanwhile, returning refugees face blackmail, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment by Syrian security forces. Many, including children, have gone missing on return. The regime says it would welcome the return of refugees from neighbouring countries. On the basis of this evidence, it cannot be trusted.

Civilian deaths, aid restrictions, arbitrary detention. Bashar al Assad has no regard for the lives of the Syrian people. We must not abandon them. So I urge our fellow members of this Council to join efforts to secure accountability for these crimes.

Thank you.

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 22 September 2023.

Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on the Russian Federation. As delivered by the UK’s Ambassador to the WTO and the UN, Simon Manley.