Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 10/2008

A fair foreign policy: Can the UK do more to protect civilians around the world?

April 2007

Oxfam Publishing

Abstract

The UK's foreign policy affects millions of poor and vulnerable people in the war zones where Oxfam works.

Any future Prime Minister and government must be global leaders in helping to solve the world's conflicts and protecting civilians caught up in them. The UK must become more consistent in challenging war crimes - and fulfilling its responsibility to protect civilians threatened by abuses.

Any future Prime Minister and government must say ‘never again' - as much to repeating the UK's past failures to stop genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda, as to repeating a misadventure on the scale of Iraq.