Heather Blake: If human rights is to be fundamental to foreign policy, the Government must seek justice over the death of Sergei Magnitsky

Heather Blake is a member of the Conservative Human Rights Commission.

Two years after the false arrest, torture while in police custody and death of tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the United Nations is launching a formal investigation after a 100 page report was submitted by Redress, a leading UK NGO on torture.  UN Special Rapporteurs on Torture, Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions and the Independence of Judges and Lawyers will be carrying out formal investigations on the case.

Mr Magnitsky was a tax lawyer working for Hermitage Capital, a British company based in Russia at the time.  Magnitsky came under threat when revealing substantial tax fraud committed by Russian authorities against the British company.  After numerous death threats made to Hermitage founder William Browder, and his team of lawyers, the company was forced to flee Russia and move back to the UK for safety; Magnitisky, however, remained in Russia.  On the 24 November 2008 Magnitsky was arrested and placed in one of the most inhumane circumstances while in custody, where he was not allowed bail, denied any legal remedies, systematically tortured, denied medical care and died in 2009.

Hermitage Capital has made it a moral responsibility to bring to justice the inexcusable death of Magnitsky, not just in the name of the family who have lost a husband and father, but in the name of all those who suffer under the same injustices and go unnamed and unnoticed.

Heather Blake: If human rights are to be at the heart of British foreign policy, Singapore's treatment of British journalist Alan Shadrake must be roundly condemned

Heather Blake is the UK director for Reporters Without Borders and a Commissioner and Rapporteur for the Conservative Human Rights Commission.

Alan Shadrake is a UK citizen, writer and journalist who met an unexpected fate last year when arrested upon his arrival in Singapore for the signing of his most recent book, Once A Jolly Hangman.  Mr Shadrake was convicted for contempt of court; the verdict is six weeks imprisonment and a fine of $20,000 to pay – simply because he wrote a book that the Singapore government did not like.  Mr Shadrake’s book criticises the Singapore death penalty; a zero tolerance code of practice that has been called into question by international NGOs and human rights lawyers.

This is the very system that Shadrake’s book calls into question, and the Singapore judiciary’s handling of Shadrake’s case is proving the author’s accusations correct.  It is ludicrous that anyone should be given imprisonment for writing a book, especially one that also happens to be well researched and written.

William Hague has repeatedly stated that human rights should be at the heart of UK foreign policy.  A great part of the British is the innate value placed on freedom of press and expression.  Along with this innate understanding, comes the responsibility to impress these values when human rights are violated.  It is not just a responsibility left to the UK, but all Commonwealth member states.