Coventry United Nations Association want to publish the opinions about some of the urgent international issues facing the UK of all candidates standing in Coventry constituencies for the general election to be held on 4 July 2024.

We would therefore like them to send us their responses to the following 10 questions and we will publish their answers on this website.

Election candidates’ responses should be emailed with the subject “MP Candidate Response” to unacoventry@gmail.com. If we receive them before the end of June 2024, we will also include them in our newsletter to be sent to over 280 subscribers on 1 July.

See this page to find links to their party manifestos and/or policy statements about some of the urgent international issues facing the UK.

Gaza and Israel

1. Do you believe that UK companies should be allowed to continue to sell arms to Israel?

2. Do you accept the International Criminal Court is justified in seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu?

Climate Change

3. Do you agree that climate change is one of the biggest threats to human health [1] and human rights [2]?

4. If you are elected, what actions will you take to ensure the next government fights effectively against climate change?

International Law

5. Has a government led by your party ever accepted that it is prepared to break, or has actually broken, international law?

6. If your party is elected to government, how would you try to ensure it abides by the rule of international law?

Asylum seekers

7. Do you believe that everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution [3]?

8. What if any changes would you like to see in the way the UK deals with people who wish to seek asylum in the UK?

Human Rights

9. Do you accept there is any justification for the views expressed by Amnesty International [4], the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [5] and others (see example [6]) that the UK government has imposed serious and undue restrictions on this country’s international human rights obligations?

10. If you are elected, what will you do (if anything) to try to ensure the government implements the words of the UK Foreign Secretary in 2006 that “the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms is a moral imperative.” [7]

References

[1] “We must fight one of the world’s biggest health threats: climate change”: World Health Organisation.

[2] “Climate change – the greatest threat to human rights in the 21st century”: Global Governance Institute.

[3] “Article 14: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

[4] “UK: Government is ‘bulldozing’ UK human rights – global human rights review”: Amnesty International UK

[5] “UN Human Rights Chief urges UK to reverse ‘deeply troubling’ Public Order Bill”: UN OHCHR

[6] “Report on UK by UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights”: UN Human Rights Council

[7] “Human Rights Annual Report 2006”: UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office