The government must be held to account over its human rights pledge

It is up to us all to push for answers and to demand politicians take action for good, writes Bel Trew

Mohammed Ramadhan and Husain Mousa were tortured in order to extract confessions, human rights groups claim (Reprieve)

Over the past week, the British government has become embroiled in the imminent execution of two activists in Bahrain centred on a confession extracted through alleged torture, has restarted arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which leads a coalition accused of committing war crimes in Yemen (something Riyadh denies), and provided a dozen repressive regimes around the world with wiretaps, spyware and devices they could use to spy on dissidents.

Each story is just another chink in our armour that Britain is a state which champions human rights and freedoms across the world. They are an uncomfortable reminder that, should foreign correspondents write stories about the UK like British reporters do about the region where I live, Britain may find itself placed among the ranks of regimes accused of exporting repression and violence.

Our history (the nastiest bits of which we still do not properly teach in school) tells us as much. While reporting on many of these stories this week, I have coincidently occupied my sleepless nights reading about the East India Company.