Analysis: The rights and wrongs of the official British view of the world

As Tony Blair highlights human rights abuses in Iraq, how does his government tackle abuses by other controversial regimes?

Afghanistan

The Foreign Office report focuses on Afghanistan and how the defeat of the Taliban brought about a "remarkable advance for the cause of human rights". Core rights, including freedom of expression and women's rights, are now better respected than for a generation, the report states.

While it proudly affirms that the military operations performed by UK troops "have been conducted strictly in accordance with the Geneva conventions", it is silent on the behaviour of American forces, including over the misdirected bombing of Afghan villagers.

The report is also silent about the hundreds of Taliban prisoners who suffocated to death in containers after they had surrendered to Afghan warlords. The report skirts around these gross violations of the Geneva conventions and says that the UK reminded its Afghan allies of the need "to treat prisoners humanely".

And it does not criticise the US for its failure to prosecute or release the British detainees at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba. "It is for the US, as the detaining power" to decide, the report says.

UK Trade with Afghanistan

2001 Exports £3.8m

2001 Imports £0.6m

Iran

The country's popular reformist President, Mohammad Khatami, was re-elected in June last year. The Foreign Office says the vote demonstrated the continuing strong support by a majority of Iranians for his reform programme, which aims "to establish an Islamic civil society based on the rule of law". The report says the pace of progress has reduced since he was first elected in 1997, mostly as a result of the struggle between secular reformists and conservative clerics.

The EU's policy towards Iran involves a "critical engagement" aimed at encouraging reform. The Foreign Office claims it is constantly raising issues of human rights abuses at the highest level of Iranian government.

In the past year, the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, has bypassed the President to shut down more than 70 newspapers, while the judiciary recently sentenced to death an intellectual who dared to suggest an alternative to theocracy for governing Iran.

UK Trade with Iran

2001 Exports £430.8m

2001 Imports £29.6m

Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Occupied Territories

What the Foreign Office describes as the "deteriorating situation in Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) areas and the Occupied Territories" has led to widespread human rights violations "by both sides", the report says.

It points to significant loss of life and injury on both sides, with more than 2,400 deaths since the start of the intifada in September 2000. While condemning the "appalling suicide bombings" against Israel, the Foreign Office says that Israeli steps to protect itself from terrorist attack should be "neither disproportionate nor excessive".

It notes that Israel has resorted to using increasingly draconian measures to deal with the terrorist threat, including closures and curfews in the West Bank and Gaza and restrictions on Palestinian access to east Jerusalem. Excessive force by Israeli military operations has resulted in the killing and wounding of many Palestinian civilians, including women and children.

UK Trade with Israel

2001 Exports £1,365.8m

2001 Imports £975.3m

Trade with West Bank/Gaza

2001 exports £0.2m

2001 imports £0.1m

North Korea

Britain established diplomatic relations with Stalinist North Korea in late 2000 and opened an embassy in Pyongyang last year. The human rights record is grim and the Foreign Office report says that there are "widespread and serious violations of human rights in the DPRK". The need to acquire reliable information on human rights has become "a driving factor" behind Britain's policy of dealing with Pyongyang, the report says.

Many problems are direct consequences of the political system, a dictatorship under theKorean Workers' Party. Under its ideology, there is a national interest in identifying and isolating all opposition, with control of information a cornerstone of the highly centralised system under Kim Jong Il's personality cult.

The UK and the EU regard discussion of human rights as integral to their relationships with North Korea, and have told the authorities the development of relations will depend on addressing human rights concerns. In May last year, Kim Jong Il made a commitment to the EU to engage in human rights dialogue, but it has been six years since a UN rapporteur was allowed into the country.

UK Trade with North Korea

2001 Exports £28.2m

2001 Imports £1.4m

Russia

Britain views the human rights situation in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya "with serious concern", the Foreign Office report says. But, crucially, it has also always recognised Russia's right to defend its sovereignty and to counter the activities of terrorist groups operating in Chechnya. Britain also highlights what it says are the clear links between some extremists in Chechnya and Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.

"We have emphasised that Russian military operations in Chechnya should be conducted in strict adherence to the rule of law and should respect human rights," the document says. But summary executions, disappearances, torture and looting continue.

Human rights organisations say that the damaging evidence of the dirty war Russia's forces are waging in Chechnya has been logged by international organisations from the UN to the Council of Europe and well as by numerous human rights organisations. Moscow pays little heed to these reports and has operated under the cover of the "war on terror" to wreak bloody vengeance on the Chechens.

UK Trade with Russia

2001 Exports £907m

2001 Imports £2,043m

Saudi Arabia

This is one of the trickiest countries for the Foreign Office, whose report notes that Britain "continues to have concerns" about human rights in the kingdom. They include "the implementation of basic international human rights norms" including parts of the judicial system; corporal and capital punishment; torture; discrimination against women and non-Muslims and restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and worship.

Britain has what the Government calls "an active dialogue" with the Saudi Arabian authorities on human rights issues. The cases of British nationals detained in Saudi Arabia in June 2001 have been raised by the Prime Minister. But human rights organisations despair at the West's approach to the kingdom, which they routinely point out has one of the highest rates of execution in the world. Scores of people are executed every year, many for non-violent crimes.

William Sampson, a Canadian, and Alexander Mitchell, a British national, were sentenced to death in a secret trial after being shown on television "confessing" to bombings in the kingdom in November 2000. One Belgian national and four other Britons were also arrested in connection with the bombings and appeared on television "confessing" to their involvement. They have each been sentenced to prison terms of eight to 18 years. All the Britons say they were tortured into making their "confessions".

UK Trade with Saudi Arabia

2001 Exports £1,516.3m

2001 Imports £991.3m

Turkey

Turkey, a Nato ally and would-be EU member state, is one of the few success stories, with human rights organisations and the Government in broad agreement that the country has taken strides to improve its record. The Foreign Office maintains that "eliminating torture is a priority" for Turkey to join the EU. And it acknowledges the "measures which the Turkish government is putting in place, ranging from enhanced human rights training programmes to the timely investigation of incidents of torture and prosecution of those responsible".

In August, Turkey abolished the death penalty, a move that Amnesty had been campaigning against for years. But as Kurdish groups say, repression and torture is still part of everyday life. Human rights organisations, however, praise the moves to jail police officers involved in the case of the torture of the "Manisa children", 16 people aged 14 to 26, who were detained on suspicion of membership of an illegal, leftist group.

UK Trade with Turkey

2001 Exports £1,202.01m

2001 Imports £1,775.82m

Uzbekistan

The central Asian republic of Uzbekistan has been ruled by Islam Karimov, a dictator, since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Foreign Office refers to the country's "poor record of ensuring respect for human rights" and points out that several detainees have died under torture while in police custody in the past year.

The Government continues to work with the EU to "maintain an ongoing dialogue with the Uzbek government". The Foreign Office also notes: "There has been no improvement in Uzbekistan's worrying record on respecting people's rights to freedom of expression and information."

But the British and EU policy of active engagement with one of the most repressive regimes on earth has alarmed American and European human rights organisations. They are running a campaign to stop the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development holding its annual meeting next year in the capital, Tashkent. They say that President Karimov once stated publicly that he was prepared to tear off the heads of 200 people to protect Uzbekistan's freedom and stability.

UK Trade with Uzbekistan

2001 Exports £20.40m

2001 Imports £26.74m

Research by Gabriele Parussini