Nazenin Ansari (Ed.), Tahirih Danesh (Ed.)

May 2011

Download Iran Human Rights Review: Access to Information (950 kilobyte PDF)

The Iran Human Rights Review, edited by Nazenin Ansari and Tahirih Danesh, is a new Foreign Policy Centre project that seeks to be an important resource for policy makers and activists by combining information and opinion with analysis and recommendations for action.

This new edition of the Review focuses on the emergence of access to information as a pivotal element in promoting and protecting the Iranian human rights movement. It contains opinion pieces and detailed articles from a wide range of experts and activists with a focus on promoting a culture of human rights in Iran and the region. Contributors include: Dame Ann Leslie, Nasrin Alavi, Ramin Asgard, Shahriar Ahy, Negar Esfandiari, Claudia Mendoza, Saba Farzan, Nazanine Moshiri, Rossi Qajar, Mojtaba Saminejad, Ali Sheikholeslami, Meir Javedanfar, Potkin Azarmehr, Mariam Memarsadeghi.

Adam Hug

April 2011 Hard copy: £4.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Kazakhstan at a Crossroads (710 kilobyte PDF)

To coincide with the early Presidential election of April 3rd 2011, the Foreign Policy Centre has produced its Kazakhstan at Crossroads publication, adapted and updated from three previous Foreign Policy Centre reports.

Kazakhstan at a Crossroads gives a clear overview of Kazakhstan's political, human rights and economic challenges, along with an assessment of its developing role in the world. After the missed opportunity of last year's OSCE Chairmanship the publication argues that if Kazakhstan wants to further develop a regional and global leadership role, the international community must insist that President Nazarbayev makes significant political reforms to improve its human rights and governance.

• Kazakhstan at a Crossroads project launch event

Adam Hug (Ed.)

February 2011 Hard copy: £4.95 , plus £1 p+p.

Download Spotlight on Armenia (1.34 megabyte PDF)

Spotlight on Armenia provides a clear analysis of the major challenges Armenia faces regarding democratic development, rule of law, media freedom, corruption and other human rights issues, while examining the impact of its international relationships on domestic politics. It argues for greater UK, EU and Western engagement in Armenia but that increased incentives must be matched by stronger pressure for reform.

Edited by Adam Hug (Foreign Policy Centre) the pamphlet contains contributions from leading Armenia experts including: The Caucasus Research Resource Centers, Tsira Chanturia (Penal Reform International), Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan (Eurasia Partnership Foundation), Narine Gasparyan (American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative), Richard Giragosian (Armenian Center for National and International Studies), Alexander Iskandaryan (Caucasus Institute), Dr Elisabeth Robson (East-West Insight), Vladimir Shkolnikov, Irina Urumova, Anna Walker (Control Risks) and Dr Mikael Zolyan (Brusov University).

• Spotlight on Armenia Washington Event
• Spotlight on Armenia London Event
• Spotlight on Armenia Brussels Event

Adam Hug

December 2010 Hard copy: £4.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Full and Equal Citizens? (730 kilobyte PDF)

Full and Equal Citizens? How to deliver equality for Israel's Arab community is a major new report from the Foreign Policy Centre, written by Policy Director Adam Hug. It provides a detailed overview of some of the main challenges facing Israel's Arab community including the current polarised political environment, discrimination in the workplace and the linked challenges of housing, planning and access to land. Based on wide ranging research and interviews, invoking both Israel's Declaration of Independence and the principles laid out by the Or Commission, it gives a critical but constructive take on the situation and the challenges ahead. The report makes a number of important recommendations for both Israel and the international community. UK Shadow Foreign Affairs Minster with responsibility for the Middle East and Human Rights Stephen Twigg MP kindly provides the preface.

• Full and Equal Citizens project launch event

Tahirih Danesh (Ed.), Adam Hug (Ed.)

Download Iran Human Rights Review: Religion (1.16 megabyte PDF)

The Iran Human Rights Review is a new Foreign Policy Centre project that seeks to be an important resource for policymakers and activists that combines information and analysis with recommendations for action.

This inaugural edition of the review focuses on the critical issue of religion in relation to human rights in Iran. It contains short essays from some of the world's leading experts on Iranian human rights: Dr Shirin Ebadi, Dr Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, Dr Shireen Hunter, Dr Abdol-Karim Lahidji, Hamid Hamidi, Dr Hossein Ladjevardi, Dr Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, and John Weston MP. Cherie Blair has kindly provided a preface.

Adam Hug (Ed.)

2009 Hard copy: £4.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Spotlight on Georgia pamphlet (3.71 megabyte PDF)

The FPC's Spotlight on Georgia pamphlet examines the growing human rights and governance challenges facing Georgia. It highlights increasing concerns both, internal and international, about Georgian rule of law, media freedom, policing and electoral processes. The pamphlet recommends how Georgia must reform and what the international community should do to support it.

Spotlight on Georgia was edited by Adam Hug, FPC Policy Director. It contains contributions from authors including: Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner; EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby; the Deputy Public Defender of Georgia Giorgi Chekheidze; former UK Foreign Secretary Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP; Chair of the UK's Georgian All Party Parliamentary Group Bruce George MP; former US Ambassador to the USSR Ambassador Arthur Hartman; Author and Conciliation Resources Associate Thomas de Waal; former OSCE Policing Advisor Marco Kubny; Elsa Vidal from Reporters Without Borders; Giorgi Gogia from Human Rights Watch; and Dr Hans Gutbrod from the Caucasus Research Resource Centres.

• Spotlight on Georgia: Irakli Alasania event
• Spotlight on Georgia: project launch event

Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Tahirih Danesh

Download Persian (Farsi) translation of 'From Cradle to Coffin' (420 kilobyte PDF)

The full text of 'From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran' translated into Persian (Farsi)is now available to download here.

Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Tahirih Danesh

2009 Hard copy: £4.95, plus £1 p+p. Buy it on CentralBooks.co.uk

Download From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran (2.91 megabyte PDF)

'From Cradle to Coffin: A Report on Child Executions in Iran' lays out the shocking history of child executions since the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It highlights the fact that in a country where 47% of the population is under 18, over the last five years there have been 33 known child executions while over 160 juveniles wait on death row for 'crimes' including homosexuality, sex outside of marriage and apostasy. It was written by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, who addition to being President of SCE is a singer/songwriter and former Miss World 1st Runner up and Tahirih Danesh, FPC Senior Research Associate.

The report examines the Iranian legal system, its religious groundings and Iran's commitments under international law. It provides detailed case studies of young people who have been executed or are on death row. Iran has indicated its willingness to end juvenile executions but rhetoric must now be replaced with action. If Iran continues to execute juvenile offenders, which violates its obligations under international human rights law, such abuses should not go with impunity. The report makes a number of key recommendations for action to the Iranian Authorities, the international community and to activists.

• From Cradle to Coffin launch event

Geoffrey Cameron, Tahirih Danesh, Barrie Boles

2009

Download A Revolution Without Rights? (3.14 megabyte PDF)

In this Foreign Policy Centre pamphlet, written by Tahirih Danesh, Geoffrey Cameron and Barrie Boles, the authors examine the religious, legal and social obstacles to equality faced by women, Baha'is and Kurds in Iran, comparing the experiences of the groups.

Cameron, Danesh and Boles evaluate the Iranian government's compliance with its own constitution and look at how Iran's treatment of women and minorities measures up to the international agreements it has signed. The pamphlet lays out practical steps that British and European policy-makers can take to support the equal treatment of women and minorities with their fellow citizens in Iran.

(n.b at time of publication Barrie Boles prefered for her contribution to remain anonymous, hence the omission of her name from the pamphlet's jacket)

• A Revolution Without Rights? launch event

Tahirih Danesh, Geoffrey Cameron

Download A Revolution Without Rights? - Executive Summary (Farsi) (90 kilobyte PDF)

This is the Farsi translation of the Executive Summary of the new Foreign Policy Centre pamphlet written by Geoffrey Cameron and Tahirih Danesh, in which the authors examine the religious, legal and social obstacles to equality faced by women, Baha'is and Kurds in Iran.

2007

Download The Democratiya Interviews (1.36 megabyte PDF)

Price: £9.95 + £2 p&p (UK orders) / US$45 (overseas orders)

This book brings together a series of conversations about the dilemmas of progressive foreign policy after 9/11. Democratiya editor Alan Johnson talks to Jean Bethke Elshtain, Martin Shaw, Kanan Makiya, Paul Berman, David Held, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Ladan Boroumand, Anne-Marie Slaughter (now Director of Policy Planning at the US State Department), Joshua Muravchik and Mary Kaldor.

To order:

Send a cheque for £11.95 (for UK orders) made payable to The Foreign Policy Centre or an international money order for US$45 (for overseas orders) to: The Foreign Policy Centre (Book Orders), Suite 14, 2nd Floor, 23-28 Penn Street, London N1 5DL, UK. Make clear you are ordering 'Global Politics After 9/11' and include your full postal address.

• Order Online using Paypal (via Democratiya)
• Global Politics after 9/11 launch event

Alex Bigham (Ed.)

2007 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p.

The Foreign Policy Centre is delighted to launch of the new report, 'Having Faith in Foreign Policy'. This collection of essays brings together faith leaders and intellectuals to discuss, debate and attempt to answer some of the most vexed questions of our age: what is the relationship between religion and the state in a post-modern society; what is the interaction between faith, conflict and development and how can governments and leaders reach out to citizens who may feel disengaged from foreign policy?

This report and event are supported by HE Anthony Bailey, KCSS, Eligo International (www.eligo.net) and the Grand Magistral Delegation for Inter-Religious Relations of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (www.constantinian.com).

Josephine Osikena

Hill & Knowlton

January 2007

Download the report (190 kilobyte PDF)

by Josephine Osikena

The Foreign Policy Centre recently hosted a seminar and reception entitled: "Redefining Multilateralism: The Commonwealth as a Catalyst for Change?" The event was addressed by John Battle MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development and Rt Hon Donald McKinnon, Secretary General of the Commonwealth.

In May 2006 the Prime Minister argued that:

"There is a "hopeless mismatch" between the global challenges we face and the global institutions available to confront them,[…] now is the moment for reconciliation in the international community around a unifying agenda for global action."

Today there are a number of obstacles to promoting international co-operation. From the indefinite suspension of the Doha Development Round, to developing a reformed United Nations system which meets the challenges of the 21st century and beyond. We witness the crisis in the International Monetary Fund and the growing irrelevance of the Work Bank in meeting today's global development concerns.

This discussion paper is a response to some of those challenges, and is intended to provoke debate about how to respond to new ideas about multilateralism

The event and paper was kindly sponsored by Hill and Knowlton.

Foreign Policy Centre

December 2006 Hard copy: £4.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Balochis of Pakistan: On the margins of history (450 kilobyte PDF)

On 4 December 2006, the Foreign Policy Centre held a seminar on Balochistan, a volatile region of Pakistan. This was part of a series of events the Foreign Policy Centre is organising in Parliament on conflicts that receive little attention in the media or elsewhere.

The meeting launched the FPC report, Balochis of Pakistan: On the margins of history.

STEPHEN TWIGG, the FPC's Director said:

"This pamphlet sets out a powerful and well argued case that the Balochi people have been let down - by the British Empire, by the founders of modern India and by successive Governments in Pakistan. It is a fascinating analysis which we hope will contribute to constructive discussion about Balochistan's future."

Tony Blair

APCO Worldwide

September 2006 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download A Global Alliance for Global Values (590 kilobyte PDF)

The pamphlet was inspired by a set of 3 landmark speeches made by then Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2006.

The pamphlet was supported by APCO Worldwide.

Alex Bigham

September 2006 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Voices from Iran (1.35 megabyte PDF)

Based on a series of interviews with civil society actors in Iran, this publication seeks to showcase the spectrum of opinion amongst Iranians on the direction their country is taking.

'Voices from Iran' follows on from a previous FPC report, 'Understanding Ira'n, where we attempted to map out the political structure in Iran and outline the FPC's belief that there needs to be a negotiated solution to the nuclear crisis, and that the failure to engage successfully with Iran is due to a failure to understand the government and its political structures.

With Iran having presented its response to the EU-3 package of incentives on the 22nd August, and a UN Security Council Resolution expired at end of this month, Iran is at the top of the international community's agenda. This new report argues that human rights, democracy and civil liberties in Iran must not be sidelined during the discussions on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Rouzbeh Pirouz, Rawan Maayeh

April 2006

Download the report (200 kilobyte PDF)

Enhancing the role of civil society and other political actors within Arab countries as well as the reliability of evaluation mechanisms for informing the international community of tangible advances came under significant examination. Furthermore, given that external calls for reform are inherently limited in the absence of domestic forces, the potential for and limitations of partnerships across regional boundaries is a key theme for discussions on change.

The Civility Programme at the Foreign Policy Centre, in conjunction with the Royal Institute for International Relations (IRRI-KIIB), organised a two-day conference in Brussels to assess the merits and record of international initiatives for encouraging reform in the Arab world. The G8 Broader Middle East Initiative, the Middle East Partnership Initiative as well as the Barcelona Process were the subjects of the conference.

John Bercow MP, Victoria Roberts

September 2005 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p. Buy it on CentralBooks.co.uk

Download Promote Freedom or Protect Oppressors (160 kilobyte PDF)

The UN Charter commits its signatories to promoting basic principles of human rights and to saving people from the scourge of war. At a time of unprecedented examination of how to improve the working of the UN, this pamphlet reminds us of the virtue of returning to basics. We can evaluate any reform proposal against a simple criterion: Does it promote freedom or does it protect oppressors? With the UN failures in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur as evidence of systemic weakness in the UN system, John Bercow and Victoria Roberts make a compelling case for qualitatively new approaches. The authors stress that if we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, we will have to do better to meet the challenges posed by fragile states.  The Millennium Review Summit presents a real opportunity for reform of the UN. The authors recommend what amounts to a new 'security council' for people: a Human Rights Council. They support the proposal for the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission and advocate a ban on the use of the veto in cases of genocide.

Dr Mark Imber

September 2005 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p. Buy it on CentralBooks.co.uk

Download Un Security Council Reform (30 kilobyte PDF)

Following the Iraq war of 2003 Kofi Annan identified a stark choice for the UN: effectiveness or irrelevance. Dr Imber argues that the High Level Panel Report of 2004 and the follow-up In Larger Freedom provide useful reference points for the future of the UN: an expanded view of human security, expansion of Security Council membership, and recognition of US priorities on terrorism and self-defence. However, Dr Imber also identifies obstacles to reform, including confusion over the understanding of 'UN reform' itself, the lack of resilience of the UN Charter, the expansion of 'competing' multilateral organisations (such as the G8 or the European Union), and diverse reform agendas.

Further information 

Jennifer Moll (ed.)

August 2005

Download Blueprint for Russia (250 kilobyte PDF)

This FPC publication explores political change in Russia. It is now available for purchase and will be launched at the FPC's Fringe Event at the Labour Party Conference.

Utilising each author's expertise, this pamphlet compiles a broad range of opinions to outline a Blueprint for Russia. The contributions focus on political change in Russia as it relates to the three key policy areas of law, the economy and political pluralism.

Further information 

Raffaella Murano

July 2005

Download Political Abuse of Judicial Process in Europe's East (110 kilobyte PDF)

This policy brief outlines some of the negative trends in rule of law compliance in the CIS, examining Russia, Ukraine and giving special consideration to the Republic of Moldova and the case of former Defence Minister, Valeriu Pasat. These negative trends represent a new pattern, whereby leaders are abusing newly constructed judicial systems to achieve extra-judicial, political goals.

CIS leaders must act now to regain the trust of their citizens by making sweeping changes, both physically and functionally to judicial systems. Other European countries and their multilateral institutions (EU, CoE and OSCE) need to acknowledge the emerging negative trend of judicial abuse and deliver both political incentives and assistance programmes more likely to have strategic effects on the practices of CIS judicial systems.

Dick Leonard

June 2005

Download Counter-terrorism and human rights - is the EU on course? (20 kilobyte PDF)

The EU responded with commendable – if unusual – alacrity to the worldwide terrorist threat unleashed on 11 September 2001.

Now, nearly four years later, Amnesty International has produced a disturbing report questioning how far this objective has been met.

Dick Leonard examines the EU's approach to counter-terrorism in an article published in The European Voice.

Oleg Panfilov

June 2005

Download the report (160 kilobyte PDF)

The re-emergence of the traditions of Soviet propaganda since 2000 represents a new era for the Russian media and domestic policy. This development has been facilitated by the dominance of Soviet-era journalists: up to 70 per cent of those currently working in the mass media in Russia were Soviet educated or employed by the Soviet media, where propaganda and counter-propaganda were considered an important part of state ideology.

Further information 

Andrei Kunov, Mikhail Myagkov, Alexei Sitnikov, Dmitry Shakin

April 2005

Download the report (240 kilobyte PDF)

The 2003 Duma elections saw an overwhelming victory for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party and drastic defeat for other political parties. Opposition calls for a recount went nowhere and many puzzles about voting trends in Russia went unanswered. This pamphlet presents the results of ground-breaking research from the Open Economy Institute in Moscow, using a new statistial method for understanding the flow of votes and electorate support between political parties. The authors find that the Russian electorate was far less predictable in the last cycle than in the first decade of modern Russian democracy; and argue that the prospects for an effective multi-party system are now bleak.

Further information 

Greg Austin, Ken Berry

February 2005 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p. Buy it on CentralBooks.co.uk

Download the report (280 kilobyte PDF)

The United Nations does not just need reform, it is in need of a 'Reformation'. The composition of the Security Council is just one structural question among many other deeper issues. The scope of change needed can only be understood with reference to the massive changes in international power relationships of the past sixty years.

Further information 

Jennifer Moll

March 2005

Download the report (260 kilobyte PDF)

Europe has long desired a Russia that is both stable and governed by a democratic rule of law. It is for this reason that human rights remain a cornerstone of European policy toward Russia, especially in the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Russia's membership in these organisations not only confirms it as a full partner of Europe, but also as a state which shares its values.

The benchmarks for protection of human rights established by the Council of Europe and the OSCE stand in marked contrast to the current situation in Russia, where the vertical of power of the government increasingly leaves less room for the individual in favour of a more powerful central state - what President Putin calls a 'dictatorship of the law'.

Further information 

Correlli Barnett

2005

Download the report (200 kilobyte PDF)

Correlli Barnett, the distinguished military historian, contrasts the success of the Allied military government in Germany in 1945-6 with the relative failure of the Coalition in Iraq in 2003-4.

Further information 

An interpretative report by Rouzbeh Pirouz, Zoe Nautre

2005

Download the report (250 kilobyte PDF)

In October 2004, the Civility Programme at the Foreign Policy Centre held a three day retreat at Ditchley Park to elucidate the views of selected Iraqi civil society representatives on the re-establishment of security, the rule of law and institutional reform.

Further information 

Preface by Andrew Jack, Analysis by Konstantin Sonin, Interview with Andrei Illarionov

January 2005

Download the report (230 kilobyte PDF)

After giving a controversial interview on Ekho Moskvy Radio on 30 December 2004, Andrei Illarionov, a former economic advisor to President Putin, stepped down from his post. He had previously issued public criticisms of Putin's reforms.

The interview with Illarionov is reproduced in this pamphlet, with a preface by Andrew Jack, recently returned Moscow correspondent for The Financial Times, and analysis by Konstantin Sonin.

Further information