CONFIDENTIAL
10. In 1982 the Finance Committee of the Common-
wealth Secretariat decided there was no money avail-
able for the immediate provision of the Special Unit
(costed at £74,000). This delay is likely to be only
temporary.
Comment
11.
Developments since the Gambian initiative have
In particular, the
not been entirely unsatisfactory.
Working Party's proposal that the new Committee on Human Rights would be advisory, rather than judicial,
and that it would not concern itself with cases which
do not form part of a consistent pattern is a
considerable improvement on the original suggestion.
But these improvements do not altogether remove our
difficulties, namely our fear that the new Committee
could become a vehicle for attacks on, for example,
British policies on immigration and Northern Ireland.
12.
However, we cannot be seen to oppose the establish-
ment of Commonwealth human rights machinery, and it
is in our interests to encourage Third World support
for internationally agreed standards of human rights.
CONFIDENTIAL