Dear supporters,
Last week, the British Rights Abroad Group had the opportunity to speak at a side event in the frame of 42nd Session of the Human Rights Council.
In it, we discussed what adequate consular assistance means and why states should be obliged to provide it.
Hosted by Reprieve, we were joined in the panel by Dr. Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions (SUMEX) at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; Diego Ruiz-Gayol, First Secretary of the Mexican Mission to the United Nations in Geneva; Sarah Belal, Founder and Director of Justice Project Pakistan; Anis Hidayah, Director of Migrant Care; and Ricky Gunawan, Co-founder and Director of LBH Masyarakat (LBHM).
Our key findings from this panel were:
- The SUMEX Special Rapporteur presented the outcomes of her latest report (to be published in October 2019), wherein she supports the existence of a positive obligation on both detaining states and states of origin to allow and provide adequate consular assistance to prisoners.
- Mexico already has laws that bind the Mexican government to provide consular assistance and protection to its citizens. The Mexican Foreign Service Law outlines that consular missions must protect and promote the rights and dignity of Mexican citizens abroad, in accordance to international law, and to act as necessary to guarantee this.
- While, in practice, the Pakistani government still has a long way to go, Pakistani law establishes a positive obligation of the government to provide uniform, democratic and comprehensive consular protection to its citizens, wherever they may be.
If, like us, you agree that the British government must defend its citizens rights and lead by example, please:
- Share the link (change.org/britishrightsabroad) to our petition with your contacts
- Write to your local MP asking them:
- What steps is the British government taking to defend your rights abroad? Why is the British government refusing to commit to be legally obliged to provide adequate consular assistance and protection to its citizens abroad?
- On the back of the above question, urge their party to back our demand for the British government to have a legal obligation to provide adequate consular assistance to Britons abroad and include it in their party manifesto.
BELOW, WE SHARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF DANIELA TEJADA'S INTERVENTION IN THE UN ON BEHALF OF BRAG.
I invite you to imagine that you, your partner or child gets detained abroad. As their national, you count on your government to protect you and your loved ones…I'm here to tell you this is a luxury not many citizens can afford - their government has no legal obligation to provide consular assistance that defends their rights abroad. I am here on behalf of British Rights Abroad Group.
Having witnessed the gross violations to our loved ones’ rights away from their home country, and the inconsistent consular assistance that these – and many other cases – have received, we are calling the British government to make it a law for it to defend and protect the human rights of its citizens abroad.
This time, one year ago, in the wake of my 27th birthday, I was crying in my living room, not knowing anything about Matt, my husband’s, whereabouts, except that he was being held somewhere in Abu Dhabi.
By then, my husband, an academic doing research in the UAE, had already spent five months held in solitary confinement in a sound-proof office with no natural light - only permanently lit white lights. He was heavily drugged, defenceless and for the most part, incommunicado…
Throughout this time, I was convinced that his government, the British government, had to do something to come to his aid.
I was told for months, that my silence could potentially mean Matt would be released without major trouble…and that if I decided to speak out about it, there would always be a chance that I’d be putting him at risk…that there was no way back on going public.
The responsibility over my husband’s safety – over his life and freedom, was suddenly being placed not on the United Arab Emirates, the state that was extrajudicially holding him prisoner, nor on the UK, his home country – it was placed on me: his 26-year-old wife.
When, after months of silence, I was told that Matt would be taken to court, I decided that, if his government wouldn't help him, I'd have to do so myself.
He was sentenced to life in prison on false espionage charges. I led an aggressive media campaign, supported by the international academic community, human rights experts and legal advisors. I imagine most people don’t - and shouldn't have - the privilege I had to have the skills and tools to do this. Why should families be made responsible for defending their loved ones' rights abroad in the way I was? Why should we be made to battle our own governments to do what should be their inherent legal obligation to do?
Following my campaigning to prompt the British government to take responsibility, Matt was released on a presidential pardon. However, his life has been compromised in unthinkable ways – not only has his academic integrity been questioned, he suffers regular panic attacks, insomnia, physical weakness and severe depression…
These are all symptoms of PTSD, which he now endures after the tortuous months he was held in extreme isolation with inappropriate and negligent medical treatment. After the trauma of being handed a life in prison sentence because he wasn’t allowed to have a lawyer from the beginning…
Appropriate consular assistance could and should have avoided all of these violations to his rights. It could have had the power to change his life as he knows it today.
The four other founding members of the British Rights Abroad Group have experienced the same or worse as Matt and me – and some continue to do so. Worryingly, we’re not alone.
In the UK’s case alone, there are more than 2,000 British prisoners abroad, more than half of them are currently being held without a trial, like Jagtar Singh-Johal, who has been held prisoner in India for nearly 2 years on unfounded terrorism charges.
Many of them have been given arbitrary sentences – like Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a charity worker, mother and wife, who is currently paying a 5 year sentence in Iran on trumped espionage charges. Or Billy Irving, who spent 4 years in an Indian prison after being wrongly accused of carrying unlicensed arms and ammunition, while he countered piracy with the British Government’s authorisation and support.
Some of them have even been sentenced to death – like Andy Tsege, who was abducted abroad and illegally renditioned to Ethiopia, where he spent 4 years in death row, before he got released…not because his government fought for his rights, but because the Ethiopian government changed.
These are the stories of the people whose families, along with me, founded the British Rights Abroad Group… what about the remaining one thousand nine hundred and ninety-five (and possibly counting) that we don’t know about?
Our cases, which stand at the tip of the iceberg, are blatant examples of the crucial need for consular assistance.
In the case of our loved ones, appropriate consular assistance could have meant that:
- their chances of getting a fair trial, bound by international legal standards, would have increased.
- they wouldn’t have had to forgo prolonged solitary confinement, as, at the very least, they would have had regular consular visitations.
- they would’ve had impartial, appropriate medical treatment to care for their ailments.
- us, their families, could have fully focused in supporting them emotionally and financially within our means, instead of battling our government to defend their most basic rights.
Today, on behalf of the British Rights Abroad Group and the victims of violations to their human rights as prisoners, I am asking member states to commit truly and legally, to providing consular assistance to every individual to ensure:
- Democratic treatment – that guarantees that every citizens’ rights are proactively defended and take precedence over any agenda.
- Transparency and clarity – so that individuals and their families can rest assured that their loved ones count on their governments to effectively defend their rights.
- And, above all, potentially life-changing AND saving, timely interventions, for thousands, if not millions of people like Matt, Nazanin, Jagtar, Billy or Andy.
It can’t be the sole responsibility of families to fight for their loved ones’ rights overseas.
Our governments must be in the legal obligation to provide this through the support that only effective consular assistance can offer. We, as much as you and your loved ones, need the right to have our rights defended.