§ Mr. ThompsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his statement of 17 March 1999,Official Report, columns 1125–27, if he will list the British overseas territories that comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. [78000]
342W
§ Mr. Tony Lloyd[holding answer 22 March 1999]: The European Convention on Human Rights has been extended to Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, St. Helena and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has been extended to Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands and Dependencies, Gibraltar, Montserrat, the Pitcairn Group, St. Helena and Dependencies and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands risk being in breach of the ECHR and/or the ICCPR insofar as they have retained legislation which criminalises homosexual acts between consenting adults in private. Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, furthermore, risk being in breach of the ECHR and the ICCPR if they administer judicial corporal punishment, which is still on their statute books. We are not aware of any legislation in the Falkland Islands and Dependencies, Gibraltar, St. Helena and Dependencies or the Pitcairn Islands which might place these territories in breach of either the ECHR or the ICCPR. We are taking steps to ensure that all of the Overseas Territories are in full compliance with the UK's international human rights obligations. Further details can be found in Chapter Four of the White Paper on Britain and the Overseas Territories, which is available in the House of Commons Library.