A coalition of NGOs have warned in a letter to the government that their review of the UK’s Overseas Security and Justice Assistance guidance (OSJA) “risks rubber stamping the last government’s deeply flawed human rights policy.”
In theory, the OSJA policy requires the government to carry out a human rights risk assessment on foreign institutions so that UK aid doesn’t enable abuses like torture and the death penalty. But in fact, the current OSJA safeguards have not stopped British aid going to human rights abusing countries, including Bahrain, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Saudi Arabia.
The letter, whose signatories include Reprieve, Amnesty and Liberty, also said that it appeared the review had been “conducted in a hurry with too little consultation” and that no specialised civil society groups have been consulted.
Reprieve’s deputy executive director Dan Dolan told The Independent, “The previous government’s policy failed to do what it was designed to do – stop UK security assistance from contributing to torture and the death penalty overseas – and instead UK taxpayers’ money has been funnelled to institutions implicated in appalling human rights abuses.
“The current government rightly criticised OSJA in opposition, and it should reject any closed door rewrite of this broken policy which has failed to take input from experts.”
