Professor appointed to Government’s Human Rights Advisory Group

12 November 2010

Malcolm Evans OBE, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Bristol, is to join the Government’s Human Rights Advisory Group. 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.

Malcolm Evans OBE, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Bristol, is to join the Government’s Human Rights Advisory Group. The announcement was made today by the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, in a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament.

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.

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.

Professor Malcolm Evans

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.

Further information

The University of Bristol Law School is a centre of expertise on a range of human rights matters. It counts among its staff a number of leading figures in the field of human rights including Professor Malcolm Evans, OBE, who is renowned for his work in the areas of torture prevention and religious rights. The Law School is also home to the Human Rights Implementation Centre (HRIC) which provides an international focus for developing expertise, advice and scholarship on the role of institutions, whether those are at the national, regional or international levels, in the implementation of human rights. The work of the HRIC and its international partners have been recognised with significant EU funding this year, including nearly €1.2 million for a three-year collaborative project, to assist African institutions working for the prevention of torture, and nearly €1.2 million for an additional three-year project that aims to strengthen, support and assist with developing torture prevention mechanisms in nine countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, which includes Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.