SECTION VI: Promoting Human Rights in the Overseas

Territories

As Foreign Secretary William Hague told the Foreign Affairs Committee in

September, the Government has “a responsibility to ensure the security and
good governance of the Territories and to support their economic wellbeing.
This is a responsibility I take extremely seriously. I also recognise that the
Territories can create substantial challenges for the UK Government. We
need a vigilant and active approach to managing these risks. This is
especially true at a time when a number of our Territories have been hit hard
by the global recession.” The Government is determined to reinvigorate the
UK’s relationship with the Overseas Territories and Parliamentary Under-
Secretary of State Henry Bellingham is currently leading a review of our
overall policy towards them. The conclusions of this review will be announced
in 2011.

The Overseas Territories have their own constitutions and domestic laws with
a substantial measure of responsibility for the conduct of their internal affairs.
The Government is responsible for their security, defence and international
relations. The protection and promotion of human rights in each Territory is
primarily the responsibility of the Territory government. But the UK
Government is ultimately responsible for ensuring the Territories fulfil their
obligations arising from international human rights treaties which have been
extended to them. Our objective is for the governments of the Overseas
Territories to abide by the same human rights standards that British people
expect of the UK Government.

There are 14 UK Overseas Territories: Anguilla; Bermuda; the British

Antarctic Territory; the British Indian Ocean Territory; the British Virgin
Islands; the Cayman Islands; the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus; the
Falkland Islands; Gibraltar; Montserrat; the Pitcairn Islands; the Territory of St
Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha; South Georgia and the
South Sandwich Islands; and the Turks and Caicos Islands. There is no right
of abode on Ascension Island and consequently no permanent settled
population. The British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory and
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands also have no permanent
settled populations.
Constitutional Development

In conjunction with Overseas Territories’ governments we are continuing to

review and modernise the constitutions of the Overseas Territories. All
Territory constitutions agreed by the Government since 1999 include a Bill of
Rights, including a non-discrimination clause that reflects at a minimum the
European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights.

In March the Pitcairn Islands’ new constitution came into force. This
enshrined human rights for the first time; provided for an attorney-general;
affirmed the authority of the Island Council; updated the role of the governor;
and brought the judicial system into the constitution. In October, following
agreement with the government of Montserrat, a new constitution order was
made which is scheduled to come into force in 2011. It also contains an
updated Bill of Rights. This is an important improvement on the outdated
1989 constitution, and will offer a sound basis for human rights and good
government in Montserrat. The present government of Anguilla had not, by
the end of 2010, made a formal request to renegotiate its constitution but the
UK Government stands ready should it choose to do so.

During 2010 we worked with the Department for International Development

(DFID) on a number of projects to promote human rights in the Overseas
Territories. These included a DFID-funded £1 million project run by the
Commonwealth Foundation to help both governments and civil society realise
the rights set out in the new or revised constitutions. The project aims to build
the capacity of governments, national institutions and civil society to address
human rights issues and to strengthen human rights reporting and monitoring
arrangements. The project organised human rights training workshops in
Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, St Helena, Ascension and the
Falkland Islands for officials and civil society on how to apply, monitor and
report on human rights and examined the situation in each Territory to help
identify where further work was necessary. As a result of these workshops,
national human rights action plans will be developed by the end of 2011.
Similar training will take place in the British Virgin Islands, the Turks and
Caicos Islands, Ascension and the Pitcairn Islands in 2011.

Turks and Caicos Islands

On 14 August 2009, following the finding by a Commission of Inquiry that

there was a high probability of systemic corruption among members of the
Turks and Caicos Islands government and legislature and public officers, the
governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands, on the instruction of the Foreign
Secretary, brought into force an Order in Council suspending parts of the
Turks and Caicos Islands’ constitution. This action was taken to enable the
governor to restore the principles of good governance, sustainable
development and sound financial management to the Territory. In
September, Henry Bellingham announced that this suspension would
continue and that the elections that it had been hoped would take place in
2011 would be postponed. In December, Henry Bellingham and Minister of
State for International Development Alan Duncan set out the milestones which
they envisaged would need to be met before elections could take place.

The 2009 Order left in place the fundamental rights chapter of the constitution
which reflects the European Convention on Human Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It removed the
constitutional right of an individual to trial by jury. This does not mean that
trial by jury has been abolished; rather it allows the local law to provide for
trials without a jury in appropriate cases. This is wholly consistent with the
European convention, under which there is no automatic right to trial by jury.
On suspension of the Islands’ House of Assembly by the 2009 Order, the UK
withdrew its acceptance of Article 3 of Protocol 1 of the European convention
in respect of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Article 3 requires the holding of
free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot, under conditions which
will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the
legislature. The withdrawal is for a limited period until the principles of good
governance have been restored and elections held in the Islands.

Pitcairn Islands

The UK Government has introduced a series of measures to improve child

safeguarding and offender monitoring on the Pitcairn Islands since Operation
Unique, the police investigation into allegations of child abuse that concluded
in 2006 with the conviction of nine men on child sex abuse charges.
Members of the Pitcairn community have engaged constructively in improving
child safety on the island. The 2010 Pitcairn constitution contains a specific
provision on children’s rights. A Pitcairn Sex Offenders Register was also
established in 2010. In the same year, the FCO and DFID funded a New
Zealand NGO, the Institute for Child Protection, to provide training for key
child safeguarding workers on the Pitcairn Islands. Child safeguarding
training was also provided to off-island professionals, such as doctors and
policemen, before they visited Pitcairn.

A Pitcairn Child Safety Review, commissioned by the FCO and DFID and
completed by independent experts in June 2009, made a number of
recommendations to improve child safety. A follow-up review is planned for
2011 to provide an up-to-date assessment of the child safety risk; the current
safeguarding measures in place; and, where appropriate, additional
recommendations for future risk management.
Supporting the Extension of the International Human Rights
Conventions to the Overseas Territories

Most of the Overseas Territories face resource and capacity constraints that
affect their ability to consider or implement treaties. Within this context, we
continue to encourage all Territories to agree to the extension of the UN
human rights conventions that the UK has ratified.

Almost all populated Overseas Territories have had the following conventions
extended to them: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the
Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We
continue to work with the government of Anguilla to enable them to have the
conventions on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural
rights extended to them. The government of Gibraltar continues to keep
under consideration extension of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against

Women has been extended to the British Virgin Islands, the Falkland Islands,
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the Turks and Caicos
Islands. In October, we supported a workshop in Anguilla for all the
Caribbean Territories and Bermuda to educate key government workers and
other interested parties about the convention and explain the reporting
requirements under the convention. The workshop also looked at the various
obstacles to extending the convention to Anguilla, Bermuda, the Cayman
Islands and Montserrat. As a result, each of these Territories agreed to draw
up three-year action plans for working on the convention. The government of
Bermuda has since indicated its wish to have the convention extended to
them in early 2011.
We continue to encourage the remaining Overseas Territories governments to
join the Falkland Islands and St Helena in accepting the extension of
International Labour Organization Convention No. 182 on the Prohibition and
Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour. The
Turks and Caicos Islands have expressed interest in having the convention
extended to them. We await their formal request. The British Virgin Islands,
Gibraltar and Montserrat are considering what changes would be needed in
their domestic legislation to enable extension.

In 2010 Anguilla, Bermuda, Montserrat and the Territory of St Helena,

Ascension and Tristan da Cunha agreed to accept, on a permanent rather
than a renewable five-yearly basis, the competence of the European Court of
Human Rights to receive applications from individuals, NGOs or groups of
individuals. This means that all the Overseas Territories to which the
European Convention on Human Rights applies now have the right of
individual petition on a permanent basis.

Other Projects

In 2010, we also supported projects to safeguard children in the Overseas

Territories and to promote HIV/AIDS awareness.

We continue to work with DFID on a three-year project entitled “Safeguarding

Children in the Overseas Territories” in Montserrat, Anguilla, the Turks and
Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands, St Helena, Ascension Island and the
Falkland Islands. This project is designed to improve policy-making,
implementation and professional practice with regard to the protection of
children, young people and their families by promoting greater Overseas
Territory government recognition and ownership of the safeguarding agenda;
strengthened inter-agency collaboration; and more effective regional
collaboration. As part of this project, three government officials from Anguilla
visited the UK during 2010 and met officials in relevant government
departments; local authorities; Local Safeguarding Children Boards (which
have the statutory responsibility to oversee the policies and practices of
agencies and organisations dealing with child protection); the courts; NGOs
working with children; and training institutions, including the Social Care
Institute for Excellence.

The governments of Anguilla, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat and
St Helena have formed groups drawn from across relevant ministries and
departments to promote the safeguarding of children. They have also made
public statements in the local media publicising this activity. Politicians and
senior officials have participated in training programmes in St Helena,
Ascension, Anguilla, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Montserrat and front
line staff training has also been delivered in these Territories. In the Turks
and Caicos Islands specific training has been devised and delivered for
church pastors, who play a key role in the lives of children and their families,
which addressed their role and responsibilities should cases of child abuse
surface either within their congregations or involving church leaders. The
training will be extended to other Territories.

We also supported a DFID HIV and AIDS project in Anguilla, the British Virgin
Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the
Territory of St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, and the
Falkland Islands. This project helps governments in the Caribbean Territories
strengthen and implement country-specific HIV/AIDS plans, and in the South
Atlantic aims to ensure the full integration of sexually transmitted
infections/HIV programmes within health sector plans.