United Nations (Hansard, 24 July 2000)

§ Mr. Menzies Campbell
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on which days he plans to attend the United Nations Millennium Summit; on which days he will be represented by his Ministers; and if he will make a statement. [131016]

§ Mr. Hain
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister will head the UK delegation to the United Nations Millennium Summit. His full programme and the exact composition of the UK delegation have yet to be finalised.

§ Mr. Menzies Campbell
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what objectives the Government seek to achieve at the United Nations Millennium Summit; what specific reforms the Government will be seeking; and if he will make a statement. [131017]

§ Mr. Hain
The UK wants the Millennium Summit, through wide-ranging discussion on the role of the UN in the 21^st Century, to result in an action-oriented concluding document which sets the UN forward-looking objectives on a range of key issues, as outlined by the UN Secretary-General in his Millennium Report.

§ Mr. Menzies Campbell
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which of the Core Group of Multilateral Treaties and Optional Protocols deposited with the Secretary-General which are representative of the United Nations key objectives for the Millennium Summit the UK has not signed and ratified, stating in each case(a) the reasons for non-signature and ratification and (b) when the Government plans to give UK assent; and if he will make a statement. [131019]

§ Mr. Hain
This Government remain dedicated to the international rule of law. Of the 25 treaties listed by the UN Secretary-General as representative of the United Nations' key objectives, the United Kingdom is a Party to 16 and has also ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which has yet to come into effect.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister expects to be able to sign the First Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, at the Millennium Summit in September. The UK is looking closely at the implications for the UK armed forces of the Second Optional Protocol, on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and intends to sign in the near future.
Legislation is currently in preparation to enable the United Kingdom to ratify two more of the treaties on the list which it has already signed. The Government intend to make the United Kingdom one of the first 60 states to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Terrorism Bill contains provisions which will enable us to ratify early next year the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. The Government attach great importance to universal adherence to both these Conventions.
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The Government expect to begin the ratification procedure for the Kyoto Protocol after the Conference of the Parties to the Protocol in The Hague in November, assuming it has a satisfactory outcome. This would coincide with the ratification by other EU member states.
After a thorough review of our obligations under international human rights treaties in 1999, we concluded that accession to the First Optional Protocol to ICCPR and the Optional Protocol to CEDAW, which call for the right of individual petition, would affect the major work under way in preparing for and implementing the Human Rights Act 1998 which will incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law. The Act will come fully into force on 2 October 2000. We will review our position on these Optional Protocols again once the Act has bedded down.
The International Covenant on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers goes far beyond the scope of the UK's existing immigration laws. Most of the 12 existing signatories are countries of origin of migrant workers. No EU states are signatories. The Government consider they have already struck the right balance between the need for immigration control and the protection of the interests and rights of migrant workers, who already have the protection of our existing commitments under international law.

§ Mr. Menzies Campbell
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which reservations, lodged by the UK to United Nations treaties, the Government plans to lift; when they plan to lift them; and if he will make a statement. [131018]

§ Mr. Hain
We are committed to the international rule of law and to the United Kingdom's obligations under international law. We keep those commitments and the terms in which they are entered into under review. We have no specific plans at the present time to lift any reservations to United Nations treaties.