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.

At night here in Beirut, tidal waves of blackouts swamp the simmering city. Under the pressure of 20-hour power outages even the spluttering generators, meant to plug gaps in Lebanon’s crumbling electricity infrastructure, stutter to a halt.

Amid the broiling heat, the only respite is to drag a mattress onto the balcony, succumb to insomnia and read. And so during an unsavoury week for the UK’s human rights record, I have found myself sinking into William Dalrymple’s latest book The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company and Amitav Ghosh’s historical Ibis trilogy about the company’s sunset years and the First Opium War.

Both works outline the hypocrisy and arrogance of Britain’s most infamous private company and how it steered ruthless British policy abroad. While we have made progress from those centuries spent pillaging our way around the globe, I cannot help seeing some parallels.

The most glaring one being the firm belief that no matter what Britain does, we are right and the beacon of the free world.

It is up to us as citizens to hold our government to account, and to demand they take action for good. It is up to us reporters to keep digging up these stories to keep the public informed. If this week is anything to go by, this is needed now more than ever.

Yours,

Bel Trew

Middle East correspondent