Policy paper

First report from the Foreign Affairs Committee 2005 to 2006: Government response

This document contains the following information: First report from the Foreign Affairs Committee, session 2005 to 2006: annual report on human rights 2005.

This was published under the 2005 to 2010 Labour government

Documents

First report from the Foreign Affairs Committee, session 2005-06: annual report on human rights 2005 response of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

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This document contains the following information: First report from the Foreign Affairs Committee, session 2005 to 2006: annual report on human rights 2005 response of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

This publication sets out the Government’s response to the Committee’s report (HC 574, session 2005-06 (ISBN 0215027590) on the eighth annual report by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (‘Human Rights Annual Report 2005’, Cm. 6606, ISBN 0101660626). Issues discussed in the report include: the international legal framework and the work of international institutions; the war against terrorism and treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary rendition and the use of information derived from torture, the situation in Iraq and the trial of Saddam Hussein; the arms trade and military assistance, and corporate social responsibility. Amongst the Government’s responses, it disagrees with the concerns the Committee raised over i) the fact that the Minister responsible for human rights issues is also the Minister of State for Trade, roles that the Committee found to be often contradictory; and ii) the decision to subsume human rights work into the more general category of sustainable development.

This Command Paper was laid before Parliament by a Government Minister by Command of Her Majesty. Command Papers are considered by the Government to be of interest to Parliament but are not required to be presented by legislation.

Published 2 May 2006