Is Britain abandoning basic human rights for money?

Six months after Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, led a delegation of investors to Sharm El-Sheikh to strengthen relations with Egypt, the country’s onetime junta leader and current President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi — who is yet to hold a democratic election — received the red-carpet treatment in London last week. The British business mission in March succeeded, with oil giant BP quick to secure a £7.8 billion ($11.8 billion) investment deal in the Nile Delta.

Thousands of people in London protested against Al-Sisi’s visit to Britain, as he is the architect of one of the bloodiest coups in this decade. Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, and hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood — the ruling party before the military took over in the 2013 coup — have been sentenced to death and await their fate in the country’s notorious prisons. Human rights organisations and NGOs have criticised Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative government for inviting the coup leader, who many believe is guilty of gross human rights violations.

Osama Mohamed Morsi, the son and lawyer of Egypt’s ousted president, says Britain contradicted itself on human rights and democratic values when it welcomed Al-Sisi. “I think… Mr Cameron has gone the wrong way by shaking hands with a criminal, a coup leader, a killer and a violator of human rights,” he explained. “I think these mistaken actions do not sit well with British democratic values.”

Similar protests took place on London streets when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the British capital last month. Hundreds of police officers patrolled the highly-valued guest’s route to a state banquet held in his honour.

Individuals who dared to wave the Tibetan flag as Xi’s car passed by were, it is claimed, detained by the police. A survivor of the Tiananmen Square massacre who tried to protest against the Chinese leader was arrested. During Xi’s visit, Britain secured business and energy deals with China.

Now some experts are claiming that the protesters who were trying to be heard and to make a statement against human rights violations in China were not allowed freedom of speech in a country which describes itself as the world’s most advanced democracy.

Professor Conor Gearty of the London School of Economics, described the British government’s attitude as “double standards”. The legal expert said that Britain is in a state of “total confusion” about human rights. “The Foreign Office has strongly pushed a human rights agenda abroad, while the government at home has attacked human rights insofar as they have affected either its ability to engage in military aggression abroad or its capacity to act at home,” he told Anadolu news agency.

Gearty claims this has led to a “collapse” by the British government: “This contradictory position, rooted in double standards, has been impossible to maintain. Hence Britain’s collapse before the Chinese and its ongoing defence of Egypt and other human rights-abusing nations with which it is commercially involved.”

This week, Britain is getting ready for another high level visit, this time from India’s Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, who also faces harsh criticism regarding human rights violations and abuse of minority rights in one of the two most populated countries on the planet. Both celebrations and protests about Modi’s visit are already underway in London. A huge pro-Modi rally will be held at the iconic Wembley Stadium.

However, the South Asia Solidarity Group, a regional human rights organisation, will be in front of 10 Downing Street with “a good few thousand people”, according to the group’s press officer, M Ghazali Khan. However, just as the protests fell on deaf ears during the Egyptian and Chinese leaders’ visits, the same is expected during Modi’s trip.

Britain will thus strengthen business and trade ties with three important partners within the space of just two months, despite activists’ calls to take action in respect of human rights violations. That tells us all we need to know about the Cameron government’s priorities.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.