As thousands continue to suffer in Robert Mugabe's man-made disaster in Zimbabwe, the world is preparing to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But as David Cameron said today, in his first major speech on international human rights, "this anniversary isn't a reason for mutual self-congratulation". Indeed, he said, we should observe Eleanor Roosevelt's words, spoken after chairing the body which drafted the Declaration - there is an "unfinished task which lies before us".
Today the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission launched its third annual report. It details violations of human rights around the world, and focuses specifically on some key themes: Sexual violence as a weapon of war, the forcible conscription of child soldiers, violations of freedom of expression and freedom of religion. The report, which will be available soon online, also puts forward policy proposals for a future Conservative Government - such as changes to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office structures and systems, reform of the UN, closer integration of human rights and aid policy, and support for the International Criminal Court.
In previous years, the Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague has launched the Commission's annual report. This year, for the first time, David Cameron delivered the keynote speech, at the Foreign Press Association. He was preceded by a brave former Rwandan child soldier, Tindy Agaba.
In a wide-ranging speech setting out why Conservatives support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Cameron condemned past foreign policy inconsistencies. "In Latin America and in South Africa, there were regimes tolerated if not positively sponsored by NATO countries which fell very far short of anything that could remotely be described as the path of truth and light," he said. He argued that what the Universal Declaration makes clear is that it is about "some absolute values". It is, he said, "a statement about some things that a civilised country just doesn't do, no matter what". Conservatives, he argued, should "instinctively understand the moral and philosophical justification for such an approach - the need for basic rules, not trusting in some utopian leader calculating what constitutes the greatest happiness of the greatest number."
Cameron then went on to reiterate some values which he had already set out in previous speeches. "I am a liberal Conservative, not a neo-Conservative," he said. "Liberal - because I support the aim of spreading freedom and democracy, and support humanitarian intervention. Conservative - because I recognise the complexities of human nature, and am sceptical of grand schemes to remake the world." Our foreign policy, he stated categorically, must be based on the values we cherish:
I do not believe that this country's interests are best defended abroad by leaving our values at home. As William Hague has said, and I repeat here today, a Conservative Government will make respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms a central part of our foreign policy ... We should aim to conduct our foreign policy in a way that is true to our values, at the core of which is a deeply held belief about the importance of human rights.
He then pledged consistency of approach:
That means conveying our concerns about human rights as and when they arise with all countries - whether they are our oldest and staunchest allies, authoritarian regimes or emerging democracies. In the case of China ... a strong relationship with China is not one in which we take a vow of 'omerta' when dealing with Chinese leaders on human rights abuses ... So when I visited China last year, I spoke up ... about human rights.
On Zimbabwe, he called for the mobilisation of an international humanitarian aid effort, and had this to say:
Perhaps nowhere does the issue of human rights - and how to defend them - come into sharper relief this Monday morning than in Zimbabwe, where we are witnessing a political crisis morphing into an international humanitarian crisis ... Today, a generation after the colonial burden was lifted, Zimbabwe is staring into the abyss.
He dismissed the idea that by speaking up on Zimbabwe, we are playing into the hands of Mugabe who portrays us as the old colonialists interfering. "Speaking up for our common humanity matters far more than tip-toeing nervously around our colonial legacy," he said. "As one African leader said to me recently, it is not speaking out that plays into the tyrant's hands - it is failing to do so." He echoed the calls of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop of York John Sentamu, the Prime Minister of Kenya and the Foreign Minister of Botswana, for Mugaba to "go now". If he does not, Cameron added, "he should answer for his crimes at the International Criminal Court."
In a clear statement of the intentions of a future Conservative Government, Cameron concluded with the following pledge:
I want to say clearly to all those to whom freedom is denied, and whose basic rights are trampled upon: the Conservative Party stands with you and will speak up for you. Wherever you live, whatever your background, we share a common humanity. To people in Burma, in Russia, in Sudan, in North Korea - and indeed in Zimbabwe - whose rights are denied, I say that the Conservative Party will stand up for you in opposition and, if we are elected, in Government. We will always remember the appeal of Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi: 'Please use your liberty to promote ours'. That is what we shall try to do, now and in the years ahead.
In Q&A, Cameron was even more passionate. He said that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had a tendency to be oversensitive - and, by implication, should be more frank and more consistent in raising human rights with other countries. He reminded us that he met the Dalai Lama in his office - unlike Gordon Brown, who met him at Lambeth Palace in a fudge that avoided his presence in Downing Street and reduced China's upset.
Having been involved in human rights campaigning for 15 years, travelling to some of the world's most forgotten corners to meet with dissidents, former political prisoners, refugees, internally displaced people, former child soldiers, women who have been raped, torture victims, orphans and widows, I was both encouraged and re-motivated by Cameron's speech. Encouraged, because just a few years ago I felt like a rare voice on these issues in the Conservative Party - and now, these issues are consistently at the top of the agenda for the party's foreign policy. William Hague has demonstrated his commitment over the past three years, as has Andrew Mitchell. To hear it now, so clearly, from the Leader of the Party is exciting. But I am re-motivated at the same time, because I take to heart Eleanor Roosevelt's words which Cameron quoted. We in the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission - which is now expanding into a Conservative Party Human Rights Group open to all - very much have an "unfinished task which lies before us". We need to translate the pledges that David Cameron and William Hague have made into clear, specific, detailed action that will make a difference for the torture victims, the displaced people, the orphans, widows and those dying of cholera and other diseases brought on by the deliberate neglect of tyrants in Zimbabwe and elswhere. That is our task - that one day, the UDHR may actually mean something to every person in every part of the world.