Should governments do business with regimes that abuse human rights?
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
October 14, 2015 3:41am CST
The British government has recently got itself into a mess over a deal to train prison staff in Saudi Arabia, the contract being worth nearly £6m.
On one side of the debate in Cabinet was the Foreign Office, which stressed the importance of the deal for Britain's credibility as a trading partner, particularly in terms of future lucrative arms and other deals with Saudi Arabia.
On the other side was the Justice Department, which pointed to the fact that the Saudi regime had a terrible reputation for abusing human rights. It is currently holding a 74-year-old British man, and threatening to flog him, because bottles of wine were found in his car. It is also threatening to behead and crucify a man who took part in a protest against the government when aged 17.
At first it looked as though the Foreign Office would win its case, but the decision has now been reversed, partly due to widespread public protests.
So - should human rights count when it comes to doing business? Or is it the case that very little international trade would be done if every trading partner had to have an unblemished human rights record? Where should the line be drawn?
9 people like this
6 responses
@WorDazza (15826)
• Manchester, England
14 Oct 15
You sure as hell like to open up huge cans of worms don't you? Where to start?
Ok let's dive straight in. If Saudi Arabia was a poor country we wouldn't have anything to do with them other than attempting regime change to rid the place of its barbaric 7th Century laws and attitudes.
But we are where we are and to some extent I can see the value of a trading relationship with countries with blemished (cough, cough!) human rights records if we can utilise that to bring about improvements in that area. Unfortunately this is very rarely done as most politicians and business people can't see beyond their next fast buck!!
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
14 Oct 15
That's the point of being controversial - there are arguments to be made from many different points of view!
There is always the consideration of whether one's action in refusing to do deals with a rogue state actually makes any difference to it - although this does sometimes happen.
Another aspect is the moral dilemma faced by the outside country. A British citizen is involved here - to be seen to support the organisation that is actively harming our own citizen has to be morally offensive from our perspective, whether or not our action has the desired effect.
@WorDazza (15826)
• Manchester, England
15 Oct 15
@indexer To a large extent I think the Saudis don't really care what the outside world thinks about them and generally speaking our governments don't really care what the Saudis do to their own citizens.
I agree, in this particular instance, our government can't stand idly by and allow a man in his 70s be publicly flogged for what is essentially a fairly minor 'offence'.
But give it six months and the prison staff training deal will be back on
@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
14 Oct 15
I dont think civilized?countries should have any dealings with these brutal regimes.
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70020)
• United States
14 Oct 15
@Susan2015 Many and increasing by the day it seems Susan
@celticeagle (189988)
• Boise, Idaho
14 Oct 15
We do have our reasons for dealing with these people. Sometimes it seems like it has to be what is good for the most people I think.
@cmoneyspinner (9218)
• Austin, Texas
17 Oct 15
Should governments do business with regimes that abuse human rights? Of course not!! Would that the discussion could end on that note and governments would use that “note” as their starting point for building relationships and establishing allies. As if …
Governments are not abstract objects. They are humans. Humans who often make decisions and justify them by saying it's for the greater good. Example: Like when the British wanted tea from the Chinese but the Chinese leaders didn't want to trade. Questions of human rights probably didn't even come up when the British leaders decided that they were going to have tea!
That's just one example. No doubt there are many many more, in many many nations. Fact is most leaders, or persons who serves as diplomatic liaisons, or work in certain official government positions in most countries look the other way on matters of human rights, until or unless there's an exposure of something that causes such outrage that it's inconvenient for them to ignore it.
