If we want to prevent conflict we must promote human rights, democracy and good governance.

Human rights

As a member of the United Nations it is our obligation to promote: 'the universal respect for, and observance of the human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion'.

The Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the core international human rights treaties provide the basis for our work.

We work through the UN (and its bodies), international institutions like the EU and with other countries to promote ratification and implementation of these treaties.

We believe that societies that respect and promote human rights will be less vulnerable to conflict and more able to peacefully resolve disputes - lack of respect for human rights is at the heart of many conflicts.

Effective and sustained post-conflict resolutions need to ensure the human rights of all peoples are respected and promoted - groups such as minorities, women, children and the disabled can be particularly vulnerable.

The UK is also an elected member of the UN Human Rights Council - find out more about this work. 

And our latest case study on promoting human rights in Guatemala is a great example of the work we're doing.

We also provide the following documents designed to help our overseas posts to promote human rights.

• An FCO strategy on child rights [PDF, 52KB, 8 pages]
  
• An FCO programme for promoting the human rights of LGBT people [PDF, 96KB, 15 pages]
  

A document on freedom of religion is planned for the near future.

Annual FCO human rights reports

Download the full Annual Report on Human Rights 2008 [PDF, 5.73MB, 194 pages]

This is the 11th FCO annual report on human rights.

Previous annual reports are available in the Human Rights Report section.

Democracy

We promote democracy around the world because this form of government is far more likely to prevent conflict:

• accountable and representative governments are far less likely to resolve disputes by armed conflict
• resources are more likely to be fairly managed in society – this reduces potential for conflict
• human rights and are better respected in democracies – this is critical to preventing conflict
• elected governments better represent society, including women, the poor, and minorities
• maintaining peace is in the interest of representative governments
• citizens have the right to protest and criticise a government without the risk of state punishment
• principles of free-speech and independent media are better protected.

122 of the world's 194 countries are either electoral democracies or moving towards democracy (2007).

How are we promoting democracy?

We work with and support a range of UK, international, government and non-government partners to promote democracy around the world:

• Department for International Development (Dfid)
• United Nations
• The Commonwealth
• Council of Europe
• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
• EU partners - European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)
• Westminster Foundation for Democracy - we help fund this independent public body.

With these partners we:

• support countries that wants to adopt democracy and effective representation
• promote better political institutions, electoral processes, parliaments, civil society, media and political parties
• observe international elections.

Good governance

Good governance is an essential part to preventing conflict because it helps give a country:

• genuine democracy and participation, representation and accountability
• human rights protection
• respect for the rule of law and access to a justice framework
• an effective civil society in public life
• good public administration - public finances and a professional and impartial civil service
• decentralised local government with the participation of local people.

We co-published a policy paper, ‘Governance, Development and Democratic Politics’, with the Department of International Development in March 2007.

It sets out how we will support the complex process of building democratic governance, particularly in challenging countries where people experience the greatest poverty.

See the Department of International Development website for more info about the UK Government’s policy on good governance.