Human Rights Watch Report on the UK for 2023

London: Global leaders have failed to take strong stands to protect human rights during 2023, a year of some of the worst crises and challenges in recent memory, with deadly consequences.

The UK’s human rights record is in significant decline. It has introduced laws that violate rights and aim to dismantle the international protection framework.  The government is attempting to send asylum seekers who arrive to the UK irregularly, to Rwanda, a country that is not safe, and has proposed draconian immigration legislation that bans most asylum seekers from even claiming asylum. Rising food, rents, and energy prices, and inadequate social protections threaten the rights of people on the lowest incomes, including to food and housing. The UK government’s efforts to act multilaterally to promote human rights obligations in some contexts, was undermined by its aggressive domestic anti-rights agenda and refusal to acknowledge its serious violation of rights in colonial contexts such as its ongoing crimes against humanity against the Chagossian people.

The report covers 12 areas. Rule of Law and Human Rights – Asylum and Migration – Right to Social Security, Adequate Standard of Living – Right to Food – Right to Safe and Adequate Housing – Conflict-Related Abuses – Women’s Rights – Racism and Ethnic Discrimination – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity – Covid-19 – Climate – Foreign Policy

The UK government in 2022 adopted laws that violate rights and proposed significantly weakening human rights protections in domestic law. The government signed an agreement to transfer asylum seekers who arrived irregularly in the United Kingdom to Rwanda, putting them at risk. Rising food, rents, and energy prices, and inadequate social protections threatened the rights of people on the lowest incomes, including to food and housing. The government failed to take meaningful steps to address institutional racism including in policing. Although the UK government worked with partners to press other states failing to uphold their human rights obligations, it did not consistently prioritize human rights in its foreign policy agenda and undermined international standards.

Read the full report: https://shorturl.at/tyGM7