Bahrain: Human Rights Abuses

Lord Flight Excerpts

Thursday 15th July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

My Lords, the FCDO’s international programme and, within it, the Gulf Strategy Fund, is a vital tool in promoting positive change and reforms across the world, including in the Gulf. We now publish an annual summary of the GSF work on GOV.UK. We will not publish further information where doing so presents risks to our staff, programme suppliers and beneficiaries, or where it may hinder our relationships with our international partners and therefore our ability to influence their reform efforts, but we will provide annual updates.

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, do the Government accept, informally, double standards applying to human rights in the Gulf versus the UK?

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

My Lords, if we want to bring about change in the world, we have to engage with those we wish to see improve their records on human rights. We do not shy away from raising human rights concerns with other countries, and we make this point very clearly in public and in private.