PS/Mr Lennox-Boyd
FROM: DS Walwyn
United Nations Department
DATE: 5 July 1991
CC: PS
PS/Mr Hogg
PS/Mr Garel-Jones
PS/Mrs Chalker
PS/PUS
PS/Mr Lankester
Mr Weston
Mr Fairweather
Sir J Coles
Mr Broomfield
Mr Greenstock
Mr Tait
Mr Joy
Mr Slater
Miss Spencer
Mr Gore-Booth
Mr Hemans
Miss Evans
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 1991
1. We have today obtained one advance copy of Amnesty
International's 1991 report which is due to be released on 10 July
(copy attached). The report covers Amnesty's concerns in 1990, and consequently out of date in some areas. It nonetheless provides a useful survey of 141 countries and their performance in relation to Amnesty's mandate: prisoners of conscience, fair trial, torture and
the abolition of the death penalty. The introduction to the report
also covers refugees and asylum seekers, a new area of concern to Amnesty, and makes critical reference to UK and US policy and practice (page 9).
2. The introduction's main theme is the selectivity with which
governments exert their influence, and the extent to which political and economic interests conflict with human rights. Amnesty cites the example of the Commission on Human Rights failure in 1990 to act on the grave human rights situation in Iraq, but fails to point out that a Western resolution to take action was blocked by the
non-aligned. Amnesty's thinking in the introduction
compartmentalises human rights, political and economic interests. This is somewhat behind the UK's thinking in this area, where we are emphasising the inter-related character of respect for human rights,
political puralism, accountability, and sustainable political,
HRXABP