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UNITED KINGDOM/INTERNATIONAL: Be careful where you help, says charity's director
By John Pontifex
Neville Kyrke-Smith said human rights must be an essential part of dialogue and discussion when it comes to overseas aid
The UK leader of Aid to the Church in Need has called on the government to uphold human rights and religious freedom as part of its commitment to overseas aid.
Neville Kyrke-Smith, the charity's UK Director, said that action to protect minority groups – including Christians – “must be part of the dialogue” with countries receiving urgent humanitarian help.
His comments came after UK Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox challenged a government proposal to enshrine in law a commitment to spending 0.7 percent of gross national income on overseas aid.
Mr Kyrke-Smith said: “Aid to the Church in Need calls on the government to uphold human rights and religious freedom in any distribution and extension of aid.”
Speaking by phone from the Holy Land where he is visiting Christian communities supported by Aid to the Church in Need, Mr Kyrke-Smith said: “This must be an essential part of dialogue and discussion in terms of building up civil society.
“This is tied into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and must never be forgotten when considering any extension of aid.”
His comments came after Britain’s most senior Catholic, Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, accused the British government in March of carrying out an “anti-Christian” foreign policy.
The cardinal criticised a UK government plan to double overseas aid to Pakistan to more than £445 million.
Pakistan has witnessed a sudden upsurge in violent incidents against minority groups, especially Christians.
It climaxed in March with the assassination of Pakistan Cabinet Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, who was created the country’s first Federal Minister for Minorities.
Concerns have been repeatedly raised about the Pakistan government’s commitment to cracking down on violence which is motivated by religious hatred and bigotry towards particular social and ethnic groups.
Cardinal O’Brien cited examples of violence and discrimination in Pakistan and more than 30 other countries covered in Aid to the Church in Need’s 2011 edition of Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith.
Of the top 10 recipients of UK bilateral aid in 2009-10, as documented by the BBC, seven are countries featured in the Persecuted and Forgotten? report, which assesses areas where Christians suffer worst human rights’ abuses.
In a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron leaked to The Times newspaper, Defence Secretary Liam Fox says he “cannot support in its current form” a UK proposal to spend 0.7 percent of its gross national income on overseas aid.
According to sources close to Dr Fox, the Defence Secretary’s concern was not about the proportion of proposed aid but how to reflect this in law.
The Defence Secretary stated that creating a statutory requirement to spend 0.7 percent of overseas would expose the government to legal challenges and reduce the government’s options on where to spend the money.