In 2004 the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan was removed from his post because of his embarrassment to the British Government.

This embarrassment?

Becoming “over-focused on human rights to the detriment of wider British interests”.

He was outraged with the human rights abuses that he saw going on in a country that is seen to be a friend of the West and an ally in the war on terror. However, after his repeated outbursts revealing the extent of Islom Karimov’s human rights abuses, the Foreign Office removed him from his position.

This above example of how the British Government are deliberately covering up human rights abuses can be added to a long line of shameful activities that activists accuse this Government of getting involved in.

Added to this list is the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the expulsion of persecuted asylum seekers and ‘illegal’ wars in the Middle East, to name but a very small few.

People & Planet, during Protect The Human Week, attempted to raise awareness of some of these issues. The more observant student would have noticed posters with their human rights printed on them placed around the Union.

This tied into a stunt pulled by People & Planet during the preview day on the 14th November, in which a student, dressed as a political prisoner, was ‘arrested’ and ‘dragged’ from the Union in the middle of the day.

The idea was to draw attention to the issue of human rights abuses and it aroused a lot of interest.

Although this event goes no way to putting pressure upon the Government, it did show students, both current and future alike, that the political and social climate we live in is not one of green fields and dandelions, but that as an apathetic population, blood is on all our hands.