CONFIDENTIAL
You should bear in mind the relevant standards laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966 and ratified by the UK on 20 May 1976. The texts of the articles concerned in the latter are attached as Annex A.
3. In each case, your mark should be given on a scale ranging from zero to 10. A mark of zero represents an unblemished re- cord, while 10 represents a flagrant, widespread and arbitrary disregard by the authorities of the State for the right in question.
4. In making your markings you are invited to take account of the following factors:
(a) the trend-line in a country. A country with several
hundred political prisoners recently incarcerated should not necessarily get the same mark as a country with the same number after a large number of prisoners have been released. The mark should be better or worse according to your judgement of whether a govern- ment is making a real attempt to improve or is sliding backwards. It should also take into account whether you think that there is any possible justification for derogations from the rights under the terms of Article 4 of the International Covenant (for text see Annex A). Note that the Covenant does not permit any derogation from the right not to be subjected to torture nor from the prohibition of slavery;
(b)
the distinction between government policy and the act- ions of administrative organs. The performance of governments and countries cannot be easily divorced. Nevertheless it is essentially the performance of governments which is being judged. A government which is making a serious attempt to control, eg, the brutal behaviour of its local security authorities should get some recognition of this in its marking.
5. Inevitably, you will have a close knowledge of only a minor- ity of the countries involved. You will therefore find attached a commentary on the human rights situation in each of the coun- tries concerned, with particular reference to the seven headings listed in para 2 above. These commentaries have been provided by HM Missions and by geographical departments. Each of them in- dicates the marks which the mission (or department) itself con- siders appropriate; in some cases, a comment has been added explaining that the view of the geographical department differs from that of the post. It is emphasised that your assessment need not be based solely on the information provided in these commentaries. Nor should you regard yourself as being in any sense bound by the suggested markings. Overseas posts are not
-2-
CONFIDENTIAL
/well