Performance on this policy goal is assessed by PSA 4 (Effective EU) – please see part 3 of this report.

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“I know ‘Britain wins battle in Europe’ is not exactly a brilliant headline but this does look like a Foreign Office victory to me with all the UK concerns highlighted and the original purpose emasculated.”
Quote from BBC Europe Editor, Mark Mardell’s blog, 14 December 2007

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Global issues, such as the threat from terrorism, weapons proliferation and climate change, demand global responses. We also need global responses to help tackle other challenges, such as those set out in the Millennium Development Goals.

But global responses require global platforms. In this regard the United Nations provides a unique and vital platform on which we can forge action with international partners. This leads to another challenge. If the UN is a way for us to generate the action required, then we must ensure that we continue to develop its effectiveness so that international action can also be as effective as possible.

The same is true of other fora. Signature of the Lisbon Treaty provides the EU with a settled institutional framework that will enable it to deliver for its citizens in response to the challenges of globalisation. And then there is the G8, Commonwealth, Council of Europe, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), NATO and the international financial institutions. Their effectiveness is also in our firm interest if we are to deliver on the scale required.

Lord Malloch-Brown   
Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN         

Jim Murphy
Minister for Europe

United Nations

As President of the UN Security Council in April 2007, the FCO promoted the first ever Council debate on climate change. The debate, which achieved unprecedented participation, focused on the security implications of climate change, including causes of conflict such as border disputes, migration and access to energy, water and food.

The FCO also worked to make sure that the UN Security Council met its responsibilities in response to threats to international peace and security, including events in specific countries. The FCO:

• helped secure Security Council responses in relation to the need for UN
• peace-keeping in Darfur, terrorist attacks in Lebanon, unrest in Burma and the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan
• made sure that the Security Council welcomed areas of progress, for example the successful parliamentary and presidential elections in Sierra Leone and
• achieved a Security Council response to the holding of Royal Naval personnel in Iran, which created the necessary international pressure to secure their release.

The first session of the reformed UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) met in Geneva in July 2007. The FCO arranged for UK representation drawn from across Government. ECOSOC highlighted the challenge of meeting the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Prime Minister’s subsequent launch of the MDG ‘Call to Action’ in New York at the end of July 2007 was designed to boost international collective action to meet the MDG targets by 2015. The FCO will continue to play a key role in building international support in the run-up to the high-level meeting called for by the UN Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly on 25 September 2008.

In June 2007 the newly created Human Rights Council (HRC) agreed on its future direction. Negotiations were difficult. The FCO worked with other states, NGOs and the UN’s human rights experts to reach agreement. As the UK is in a voting minority within the HRC, it is a challenge for us, along with our like-minded partners, to achieve our objectives at the Council. We would have preferred stronger provisions on some elements, but overall we considered it a valuable framework to build on. We welcome the new Universal Periodic Review which will look at every UN member’s human rights record. This should bring greater fairness, balance and openness to the HRC’s consideration of member countries’ human rights records and alert it to specific human rights violations.

The FCO was disappointed by a disproportionate and unbalanced focus on the Middle East in the Council’s early months, which meant that other situations were comparatively neglected. However, often prompted by the FCO, the Council has taken some encouraging steps, including addressing the tragic situations in Darfur and Burma. The FCO has also repeatedly called attention in Council debates to victims around the world, including in Zimbabwe, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Iran.

Two further notable FCO achievements on human rights were the creation of a new UN special rapporteur (a UN independent expert) to consider modern slavery issues and the adoption of a UN resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on (suspension of) the death penalty.

European Union

The successful conclusion of negotiations and signing of the Lisbon Treaty provides the EU with a more stable and lasting institutional framework. The FCO played a crucial role in negotiating the Lisbon Treaty and is responsible for taking the Treaty through Parliament. The Treaty will make it possible for an EU of 27 or more nation states to respond effectively to the challenges of globalisation, and to deliver results on key issues such as employment, growth, security, the environment and foreign policy.

The FCO was active in making sure that the EU sees climate change as a core strategic challenge and shows global leadership. In 2007 the EU reached agreement on an ambitious response to climate change and on a move towards a high growth, low carbon economy.

In December 2007, the EU’s position at the UN climate change summit in Bali played an important part in reaching agreement to launch negotiations during 2008 to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The challenge now is to make sure the EU delivers on its commitments. The publication by the European Commission of proposals to relax restrictions in the energy market and deliver the EU’s climate change targets are key building blocks in this process.

The FCO has continued to work actively with EU partners to support reform, stability and prosperity in the countries neighbouring the EU. With Kosovo no more than 50 kilometres from the nearest EU border, an effective EU contribution was essential. The FCO worked with EU partners to agree the EU’s position on Kosovo’s independence, including the deployment of an EU mission to support this settlement and strengthen the rule of law.

More widely, the FCO has worked to make sure that membership of the EU continues to be recognised as the most effective tool we have to drive reform across the continent. Our strategic partnerships with Turkey and Croatia have supported negotiations over the past year about the possibility of them becoming members of the EU.

On issues of common security and foreign policy, the FCO has played a leading role in reaching agreement on tough EU sanctions against Iran. These measures go further than UN sanctions, which demonstrates EU unity on the need for Iran to comply fully with International Atomic Energy Authority inspectors and to suspend its uranium enrichment-related activities. The FCO pushed for further targeted sanctions against Burma, increasing the pressure on the Burmese elite to respect the human rights of all Burmese citizens and to enter into discussions with democratic groups.

G8

The FCO is responsible for co-ordinating the UK Government’s preparations for G8 summits. In 2007/08 the FCO’s contribution helped to secure agreement on climate change, development and the global economy at the Heiligendamm summit in Germany. The summit also launched the Heiligendamm Process, which aims to develop deeper and more effective communication between G8 members and Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

Commonwealth

The FCO achieved several key UK objectives at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala in November 2007.

The UK is currently a member of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which was set up to deal with serious and persistent violations of the Harare Principles of democracy and good governance.

The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, and the Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, Lord Malloch-Brown, met their CMAG counterparts and the Commonwealth Secretary General in November 2007 to discuss the Commonwealth response to the state of emergency in Pakistan. In November 2007 in London, CMAG gave the Pakistan Government five measures to meet or face suspension from the Commonwealth. In Kampala on 22 November 2007 CMAG met to review Pakistan’s progress and agreed to suspend Pakistan from the Commonwealth, because of that country’s failure to meet the five measures. CMAG underlined the Commonwealth’s commitment to continued engagement with Pakistan, including reviewing progress there following the elections of early 2008.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

The FCO is also the lead government department for the OECD. In May 2007 the FCO helped achieve OECD agreement to open talks with Chile, Estonia, Israel and Slovenia about the possibility of them joining the OECD while reinforcing OECD values and principles. Agreement on greater OECD engagement with Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa will underpin the organisation’s credibility. This is a key part of the FCO’s objective of bringing the emerging economies into a rules-based international system that will promote global prosperity.

Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)

In 2007/08 the FCO spent over £2 million to provide more than 30 experts to OSCE field missions across the Balkans, Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Their expertise contributed to progress in areas relating to conflict, post-conflict reconstruction, human rights, democratisation, rule of law and border control.

Over the same period the FCO funded around 300 UK election observers to support OSCE election observation missions, including to Armenia, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Ukraine.

The FCO also worked to make sure that the OSCE continues to focus on promoting tolerance and non-discrimination. In June 2007 we sent a high-level delegation headed by Baroness Ashton to the Bucharest Conference to tackle this issue.

At the 2007 OSCE ministerial meeting in Madrid in November, an FCO delegation led by Minister for Europe, Jim Murphy, played an important role in negotiations on the key decisions to agree which OSCE member states will hold the next three chairmanships, and on the OSCE’s possible involvement in helping Afghanistan improve border security.

Council of Europe (CoE)

The FCO was involved in all CoE work, aiming to make sure that the organisation remained focused on its core values of promoting and protecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law across Europe.

The FCO has worked to promote the CoE as the standard-setting organisation for human rights in Europe, and to uphold its unique monitoring systems. The FCO took part in discussions about possible reforms to the European Court of Human Rights, to allow it to manage its growing workload, and we maintained pressure on Russia to sign up to Protocol 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which will pave the way for substantial Court reforms. We also used the Serbian chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers to urge Serbia to meet its CoE commitments.

The UK contributed around €30 million (approximately £20 million) to the CoE in 2007. We also funded an expert in the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner, which directly contributed to the CoE’s core mission.

International criminal tribunals

The FCO is at the heart of the international community’s efforts to make sure that those who commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are held to account. In 2007 the international criminal tribunals, with UK support, made significant advances in this respect.

In May 2007 the International Criminal Court issued warrants for two people accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. Court investigations continued in relation to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and the Central African Republic.

In January 2008 the Special Court for Sierra Leone, sitting in The Hague, started to hear evidence in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor for crimes against humanity and war crimes. This is the first time that a former African President has faced trial before an international tribunal. The FCO played a central role in bringing Charles Taylor before the Court, for example by passing legislation that will allow him to serve his sentence in the UK if he is convicted.

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)

The FCO set up a special six-person unit in the run-up to the CHOGM in Kampala in November 2007.

Together with partners across Government, the FCO worked hard to achieve ambitious but deliverable outcomes for the CHOGM. The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and four UK ministers attended the series of meetings with HM The Queen.

The Lake Victoria Action Plan on Climate Change took forward a number of UK ideas, in particular giving the Commonwealth a role in helping developing member states to set up assessments to measure the effects of climate change on their economies.  An ambitious membership paper was agreed, paving the way for Rwanda to apply to join the Commonwealth.

UK ideas on the Millennium Development Goals, education and international institutional reform were also adopted in the final official statement.

It was also HRH the Prince of Wales’s first overseas CHOGM. He contributed by supporting the civil society events that took place.

Lessons learned: GOF Human Rights Programme

In 2007 the FCO’s Global Opportunities Fund (GOF) Human Rights Programme assessed a group of six rule of law projects introduced over the past five years. External consultants concluded that the projects represented good value for money, but the effect of two of the projects was limited.

The report noted that the more successful projects had identified appropriate interlocutors at different levels within the Chinese authorities and relevant Chinese partners. Also, the report noted, it was important to assign leading roles to the Chinese partners, in particular for discussions with policy-makers and law-makers.

The report concluded that international co-operation projects are most successful where partners and institutions see first-hand examples of national or international practice using different practical options for tackling issues of concern. The assessment highlighted the difficulties of making sure that projects have a collective impact, stressed the importance of greater strategic planning of projects, and recommended further development of rule of law work in China.