Bill Wilson MSP

Dr Bill Wilson MSP (SNP) has drawn the Scottish Parliament’s attention to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s plans to cut the costs of its Annual Human Rights Report and asked his fellow MSPs to join him in pressuring the FCO not to cut back on the Report’s “compass and rigour”.

Dr Wilson said, “I was alarmed to read in the Observer that the word had gone out to UK embassies that ‘we need to concentrate on trade’, so the 23 August statement on the FCO website implying that the UK will not put trade before human rights is very welcome.

“Despite the FCO’s Annual Human Rights Report, however, the UK’s record on human rights is far from good, so maintaining the Report’s standards is not enough in itself. Previous UK administrations have been responsible for, or complicit in, appalling atrocities (for example in Diego Garcia, Iraq and Indonesia). The ConDem coalition should turn over a new leaf in this regard.