The United Kingdom welcomes Kiribati’s [pronounced Ki-ri-bass] continued engagement with the UN human rights system and we acknowledge capacity constraints in Kiribati, as a Small Island Developing State, including a geographically dispersed population, and climate change threats.

The UK recognises Kiribati’s progress since its 2015 review, including ratifying the Convention Against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We encourage Kiribati to take steps to reduce the reporting backlog on ratified treaties, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The UK recognises Kiribati’s efforts to prevent gender-based violence. We remain concerned that there are inadequate measures to change social norms, support victims and facilitate redress of such crimes.

We welcome working with Kiribati on scoping a National Human Rights Institution via the South Pacific Community’s Pacific Commonwealth Equalities Programme.

We recommend that Kiribati:

1. Establish a National Human Rights Institution in a timely manner and in line with the Paris Principles, using expertise from regional and UN bodies as necessary;

2. Criminalise human trafficking in line with international standards, including recognising that human trafficking may occur within State borders;

3. Implement the Family Welfare Act 2013 and the National Approach to Eliminating Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Action Plan to improve access to essential services for violence survivors, embed measures to change social norms, and facilitate redress such crimes.

Published 30 January 2020

The Charity Commission has opened an inquiry into Resham Helping Hand (1120198), due to concerns that there has been misconduct and/or mismanagement at the grant-making charity. The charity’s purposes include providing overseas aid and humanitarian relief in Pakistan. The inquiry opened on 7 January 2020.

The Commission met with the trustees in response to information provided within the charity’s annual return, ultimately issuing an action plan to address concerns it had identified around due diligence and monitoring the end use of charitable funds.

The Commission has since revisited the charity and has continued concerns relating to the trustees’:

• failure to conduct due diligence checks before parting with charitable funds, despite the advice and guidance of the Commission.
• monitoring of the end use of funds, as trustees were unable to demonstrate how the charitable funds would be used.
• application of charitable income in furtherance of the charity’s objects.

The Commission has therefore opened an inquiry to look into these regulatory concerns and exercised its power to temporarily restrict the charity’s transactions in order to protect charitable funds.

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries by the Commission are available on GOV.UK.

Ends.

Notes to Editors

1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work see the about us page on GOV.UK.
2. Section 76(3)(f) of the Charities Act 2011 gives the Commission power to restrict transactions into which the trustees may enter into, without prior written approval of the Commission. In this case the inquiry has restricted overseas transfers or payments, payments to trustees or related parties and cash withdrawals.

Published 30 January 2020

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales concluded a two-day visit to Israel – 22-23 January 2020 – in a festive reception held in his honour at the British Ambassador Neil Wigan’s residence in Ramat Gan.

HRH started his visit meeting President Reuven Rivlin on at the President’s Residence ahead of the Fifth International Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem. The two leaders planted a tree together in the garden of the residence.

Later in the day, HRH visited the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where he met with two Holocaust survivors: George Shefi, who arrived in Britain on the Kindertransport; and Marta Weiss, who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. he toured the Wing for Jewish Art and Life, together with Mirvis, UK Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan.

During the visit, the prince saw the two reconstructed synagogues from three continents featured in the Synagogue Route and viewed the collection of Hanukkah lamps from Jewish communities all over the world, as well as the Shrine of the Book that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls.

HRH later carried a speech at the International Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem, saying: “The lessons of the Holocaust are searingly relevant to this day. Seventy-five years after the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, hatred and intolerance still lurk in the human heart, still tell new lies, adopt new disguises, and still seek new victims”.

HRH then attended to a reception in his honour at Ambassador Neil Wigan’s official residence, where he was introduced to a number of senior guests from various fields of Israeli society, including Isaac Hertzog and his wife Michal Hertzog, Avihai Mandelblit, Minister Ofir Akunis, Adina Bar Shalom, Carmel Shama Hacohen, Elyakim Rubinstein, chief rabbi lau, Evgenia Dodina and Marina Maximilian.

In a speech during the event, Prince Charles said he was pleased to return to Israel, noting Israeli innovation in the fields of medicine, research and science and the flourishing links between Britain and Israel in these areas.

During the event, HRH, who was engaged in the past few decades in actions for a sustainable global future, was presented with a unique demonstration of four innovative technological solutions in the fields of healthcare and sustainability: Watergen and their water filtration system; HomeBiogas and their biogas systems solution, BioSketch and their Sniff Phone and Professor Tal Dvir who works on 3D printed hearts.

The demonstrations showcased Israel as a leader in innovation and the strong strategic partnership between the UK and Israel in the fields of innovative technology.

The Regulator of Social Housing has launched an eight-week consultation today (30 January 2020) on its proposed equality objectives.

RSH has proposed three objectives which seek to strike an appropriate balance in meeting its general equality duty in its day to day work alongside a co-regulatory approach to regulation.

The proposed objectives are:

1. Ensure that where equality and diversity concerns are raised through the regulator’s enquiries process, they are considered in line with its statutory objectives.
2. The regulator will review its methods of communicating to ensure that it does so in an inclusive way.
3. The regulator will provide a supportive and inclusive working environment for all.

Private and local authority registered providers, tenants, lenders and other interested stakeholders are invited to give feedback on whether they think the proposed objectives meet the RSH’s obligations under the Equality Act, and if appropriate activity has been identified to help achieve the overall objective.

Chief Executive of RSH, Fiona MacGregor said:

The proposed objectives focus on how we interact with tenants and the public; how we communicate; and the organisational culture we are creating when it comes to equality. While there is no statutory obligation for us to carry out a public consultation to set these objectives, we welcome input and feedback from our stakeholders in the process of setting our equality objectives.

Our overall aim is to create a good foundation for us to build on and we will review progress against the objectives regularly to ensure they are being met.

The consultation runs until 26 March 2020.

Notes to editors

1. RSH is mindful of its statutory equality duties under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. The regulator will take a proportionate approach to its equality obligations and has identified no equalities implications for this consultation. However, based on responses to this consultation, the regulator reserves the right to revisit these matters if new information comes to light.
2. Regulation 5 of the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, requires the regulator to publish one or more equality objectives. In preparing the proposed objectives the regulator has had regard to guidance issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission; considered its employees and protected characteristics within the organisation; reviewed published equality information relating to the social housing sector; and given consideration to the public function it performs and the people (particularly in respect of protected characteristics) who might be affected by the exercise of its function.
3. Although there is no formal requirement to carry out a consultation on the proposed equality objectives the regulator has chosen to do so.
4. RSH promotes a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver homes that meet a range of needs. It does this by undertaking robust economic regulation focusing on governance, financial viability and value for money that maintains lender confidence and protects the taxpayer. It also sets consumer standards and may take action if these standards are breached and there is a significant risk of serious detriment to tenants or potential tenants. For more information about RSH, visit the RSH homepage.

Further information

For press office contact details, see our Media enquiries page. For general queries, please email enquiries@rsh.gov.uk or call 0300 124 5225.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially confirmed that they are not expecting any changes to the rights and privileges accessible to the British nationals visiting or residing in the Russian Federation after the UK will have left the EU.

The cooperation between Russia and the UK in the area of internal affairs is governed by the UN and the Council of Europe conventions and protocols, which will remain in force after Brexit.

The Agreement between the European Community and the Russian Federation on the facilitation of the issuance of visas to the citizens of the EU and Russia does not cover the UK. No bilateral UK-Russia agreement on simplified issuance of visas is currently in place. Entry, exit, stay and movement of the British nationals within Russia will still be governed by Russian national law.

Russian Federal Law 115-FZ of 25 July 2002 ‘On legal status of foreign nationals in the Russian Federation’ currently governs rights of foreign nationals in Russia. Article 4 sets that in Russia foreign nationals have broadly the same rights and responsibilities as Russian nationals, except for the cases specifically covered by Russian federal law.

Rights for provision of medical assistance to foreign nationals endorsed by the Russian Governmental Decree N186 of 6 March 2013 provide that emergency medical service in case of acute diseases and conditions and exacerbation of chronic diseases presenting a threat to patient’s life is provided to foreign nationals free of charge.

Article 78 of the Federal law 273- FZ ‘On education in the Russian Federation’ governs access to educational services provided by Russian institutions to foreign nationals in Russia, granting free access to pre-school, primary general, basic general, secondary general education and professional training for manual and office workers within the framework of secondary general education curriculum.