The Group has been established to give the Foreign Secretary the best possible information about human rights challenges, and for the Foreign Office to benefit from outside advice on the conduct of its policy. It will meet for the first time on 2 December.
The Group will be chaired by the Foreign Secretary and will hold two meetings a year. Junior ministers and Foreign Office officials will also chair additional meetings on key issues agreed by the Group.
Professor Evans, who is a UK member of the United Nations Sub-committee on the Prevention of Torture, said: I’m delighted to have been asked to join the Advisory Group, the establishment of which underlines the significance of the promotion and protection of human rights as an aspect of foreign policy. I look forward to being able to contribute to its work, and through it, to help inform policy and practice in this area.”
Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “Human rights are essential to and indivisible from the UK’s foreign policy priorities.
“The members of this group are eminent individuals with a broad range of human rights experience, drawn from NGOs, the legal and academic communities and international bodies. I am delighted that they have agreed to join this Group and look forward to working with them to improve and strengthen our international human rights work.”
The invited individuals are:
- Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK
- Dr Chaloka Beyani, LSE and UN Special Rapporteur on Internally Displaced People
- Dr Agnés Callamard, Director of Article 19
- Joel Edwards, International Director of Micha Challenge
- Malcolm Evans OBE, University of Bristol, UK member of the United Nations Sub-committee on the Prevention of Torture
- Sapna Malik, Partner, Leigh Day and Co. Solicitors
- Professor Susan Marks, LSE
- Tim Otty QC, Blackstone Chambers
- Tom Porteous, Director of Human Rights Watch, London
- Sir Nigel Rodley, University of Essex, Member of the UN Human Rights Committee
- Dame Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive of Oxfam GB
- Professor Surya Subedi OBE, University of Leeds and UN Special Rapporteur for Cambodia
- Sir Nicholas Young, Chief Executive, the British Red Cross.
The individuals have been invited in a personal capacity, to provide external advice on human rights in foreign policy, and on options for addressing human rights problems.