Britain and Her Allies🤝
Our Britain and Her Allies campaign seeks to develop a human rights based foreign policy for the Labour Party - mapping out a vision of a Global Britain as a champion of human rights.
We do this by identifying where the British government is complicit or apathetic to human rights abuses, working to raise awareness of human rights abuses, and developing policy proposals for the UK government to help end these abuses.
In particular, we focus on the relationship between countries with which the United Kingdom has close economic, cultural or historical ties and where there are serious human rights abuses. This is because it is over these countries that the UK is able to exercise significant diplomatic pressure to help end such abuses.
Trade and Human Rightsđź’±
In October 2020, we launched our Trade and Human Rights series of briefings, which examines Britain's trade with countries around the world and the impact on human rights, both in the UK and overseas.
The first report, Exiting the EU and Human Rights, focuses on employment rights, environmental standards and the UK immigration system post-Brexit.
The second report, Trade Deals and Human Rights, focuses on how the UK can use legal mechanisms in trade deals to improve human rights conditions around the world, and set the Gold Standard for human rights conditionality in trade deals. The third report, British Companies and Human Rights, due to be published later this year, will focus on corporate supply chains, arms sales, military contracts and tax evasion.
Saudi Arabia
In 2019, we published our Britain and Saudi Arabia briefing that examined the depth and extent of human rights abuses inside Saudi Arabia, from the total repression of free speech to violence against Shia minorities and women, alongside the history and context of our trade and diplomatic relationship, the arms sales and wider military support we provide. We also considered Saudi Arabia's wider actions in the Middle East, including the devastating war in Yemen (and the UK's deep involvement in this).
We hosted a Parliamentary launch event with MPs, including Clive Lewis and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, alongside activists and other interested groups, including Amnesty International, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, and ALQST, a Saudi human rights charity. Following expert input from this event, we published sixteen policy recommendations for the Government or a Labour controlled Foreign Office.
Bangladesh
We published a second briefing later in 2019 on Britain’s relationship with Bangladesh, which focused on the historic and contemporary relationship between the two countries. This was followed by a roundtable to discuss the future of Britain-Bangladesh relations in Parliament, with Rupa Huq MP, journalist David Bergman, social policy and aid expert Halima Begum, Chair of the Stop the War Coalition Murad Qureshi and Dr Rumana Hasem.
LCHR then published a series of policy recommendations, which examined a range of issues including, putting workers’ rights at the heart of its trade agreement in Bangladesh, an investigation of the UK’s training of Bangladeshi military and security forces and their link to human rights abuses, and putting Britain at the forefront of the global response to the Rohingya crisis.
Since May 2020 we have been advocating in the UK on behalf of imprisoned Bangladeshi journalist, Shafiqul Islam Kajol. You can read about his case here and here.
Briefings and Articles
We do this by identifying where the British government is complicit or apathetic to human rights abuses, working to raise awareness of human rights abuses, and developing policy proposals for the UK government to help end these abuses.
In particular, we focus on the relationship between countries with which the United Kingdom has close economic, cultural or historical ties and where there are serious human rights abuses. This is because it is over these countries that the UK is able to exercise significant diplomatic pressure to help end such abuses.
Trade and Human Rightsđź’±
In October 2020, we launched our Trade and Human Rights series of briefings, which examines Britain's trade with countries around the world and the impact on human rights, both in the UK and overseas.
The first report, Exiting the EU and Human Rights, focuses on employment rights, environmental standards and the UK immigration system post-Brexit.
The second report, Trade Deals and Human Rights, focuses on how the UK can use legal mechanisms in trade deals to improve human rights conditions around the world, and set the Gold Standard for human rights conditionality in trade deals. The third report, British Companies and Human Rights, due to be published later this year, will focus on corporate supply chains, arms sales, military contracts and tax evasion.
Saudi Arabia
In 2019, we published our Britain and Saudi Arabia briefing that examined the depth and extent of human rights abuses inside Saudi Arabia, from the total repression of free speech to violence against Shia minorities and women, alongside the history and context of our trade and diplomatic relationship, the arms sales and wider military support we provide. We also considered Saudi Arabia's wider actions in the Middle East, including the devastating war in Yemen (and the UK's deep involvement in this).
We hosted a Parliamentary launch event with MPs, including Clive Lewis and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, alongside activists and other interested groups, including Amnesty International, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, and ALQST, a Saudi human rights charity. Following expert input from this event, we published sixteen policy recommendations for the Government or a Labour controlled Foreign Office.
Bangladesh
We published a second briefing later in 2019 on Britain’s relationship with Bangladesh, which focused on the historic and contemporary relationship between the two countries. This was followed by a roundtable to discuss the future of Britain-Bangladesh relations in Parliament, with Rupa Huq MP, journalist David Bergman, social policy and aid expert Halima Begum, Chair of the Stop the War Coalition Murad Qureshi and Dr Rumana Hasem.
LCHR then published a series of policy recommendations, which examined a range of issues including, putting workers’ rights at the heart of its trade agreement in Bangladesh, an investigation of the UK’s training of Bangladeshi military and security forces and their link to human rights abuses, and putting Britain at the forefront of the global response to the Rohingya crisis.
Since May 2020 we have been advocating in the UK on behalf of imprisoned Bangladeshi journalist, Shafiqul Islam Kajol. You can read about his case here and here.
Briefings and Articles
The first report, Exiting the EU and Human Rights, focuses on employment rights, environmental standards and the UK immigration system post-Brexit.
The second report, Trade Deals and Human Rights, focuses on how the UK can use legal mechanisms in trade deals to improve human rights conditions around the world, and set the Gold Standard for human rights conditionality in trade deals. The third report, British Companies and Human Rights, due to be published later this year, will focus on corporate supply chains, arms sales, military contracts and tax evasion.
Saudi Arabia
In 2019, we published our Britain and Saudi Arabia briefing that examined the depth and extent of human rights abuses inside Saudi Arabia, from the total repression of free speech to violence against Shia minorities and women, alongside the history and context of our trade and diplomatic relationship, the arms sales and wider military support we provide. We also considered Saudi Arabia's wider actions in the Middle East, including the devastating war in Yemen (and the UK's deep involvement in this).
We hosted a Parliamentary launch event with MPs, including Clive Lewis and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, alongside activists and other interested groups, including Amnesty International, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, and ALQST, a Saudi human rights charity. Following expert input from this event, we published sixteen policy recommendations for the Government or a Labour controlled Foreign Office.
Bangladesh
We published a second briefing later in 2019 on Britain’s relationship with Bangladesh, which focused on the historic and contemporary relationship between the two countries. This was followed by a roundtable to discuss the future of Britain-Bangladesh relations in Parliament, with Rupa Huq MP, journalist David Bergman, social policy and aid expert Halima Begum, Chair of the Stop the War Coalition Murad Qureshi and Dr Rumana Hasem.
LCHR then published a series of policy recommendations, which examined a range of issues including, putting workers’ rights at the heart of its trade agreement in Bangladesh, an investigation of the UK’s training of Bangladeshi military and security forces and their link to human rights abuses, and putting Britain at the forefront of the global response to the Rohingya crisis.
Since May 2020 we have been advocating in the UK on behalf of imprisoned Bangladeshi journalist, Shafiqul Islam Kajol. You can read about his case here and here.
Briefings and Articles
We hosted a Parliamentary launch event with MPs, including Clive Lewis and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, alongside activists and other interested groups, including Amnesty International, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, and ALQST, a Saudi human rights charity. Following expert input from this event, we published sixteen policy recommendations for the Government or a Labour controlled Foreign Office.
Bangladesh
We published a second briefing later in 2019 on Britain’s relationship with Bangladesh, which focused on the historic and contemporary relationship between the two countries. This was followed by a roundtable to discuss the future of Britain-Bangladesh relations in Parliament, with Rupa Huq MP, journalist David Bergman, social policy and aid expert Halima Begum, Chair of the Stop the War Coalition Murad Qureshi and Dr Rumana Hasem.
LCHR then published a series of policy recommendations, which examined a range of issues including, putting workers’ rights at the heart of its trade agreement in Bangladesh, an investigation of the UK’s training of Bangladeshi military and security forces and their link to human rights abuses, and putting Britain at the forefront of the global response to the Rohingya crisis.
Since May 2020 we have been advocating in the UK on behalf of imprisoned Bangladeshi journalist, Shafiqul Islam Kajol. You can read about his case here and here.
Briefings and Articles
LCHR then published a series of policy recommendations, which examined a range of issues including, putting workers’ rights at the heart of its trade agreement in Bangladesh, an investigation of the UK’s training of Bangladeshi military and security forces and their link to human rights abuses, and putting Britain at the forefront of the global response to the Rohingya crisis.
Since May 2020 we have been advocating in the UK on behalf of imprisoned Bangladeshi journalist, Shafiqul Islam Kajol. You can read about his case here and here.