§ Sir Frederic Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) what are the criteria affecting decisions by Her Majesty's Government on whether to issue instructions to their Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support an on-the-spot investigation by a delegation of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights ; and whether such criteria include ideological and political considerations in regard to the country concerned ;
(2)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in Vietnam ;
(3)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human 41W Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in Laos ;
(4)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in German Democratic Republic ;
(5)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in Cambodia ;
(6)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ;
(7)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in Poland ;
(8)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in Hungary ;
(9)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in Romania ;
(10)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in Czechoslovakia ;
(11)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United 42W Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in Bulgaria ;
(12)if he will instruct Her Majesty's Permanent Representative at the United Nations to instigate or support the sending of a Commission of Investigation by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to inquire into the observance of human rights in Chile.
§ Mr. Luard :I assume the hon. Gentleman has in mind the United Nations Commission on Human Rights rather than the Committee on Human Rights, which is the body of 18 independent experts supervising implementation of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Our human rights policy is based on the standards set in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants, and the European Convention, as well as our own judgment of what it is legitimate to demand of civilised nations, irrespective of their ideological or political stance.
The Government consider that the Commission on Human Rights should have a central role in the international application of those standards to offending countries and will support whatever action it judges most likely to be beneficial to victims.
The Commission next meets in February 1978 and the Government have not yet decided on which problems it would be right to concentrate on that occasion.