Description
The UK’s departure from the EU raises basic questions about its position in the world. One area that has thus far been overlooked is what Brexit means for the UK’s ability to promote compliance with international human rights norms through various diplomatic channels. The salience of effective human rights diplomacy is particularly pertinent in light of wider and seismic geopolitical changes currently underway. Economic and political power is shifting from North and West to South and East; liberal democracies increasingly share or cede global power to authoritarian regimes or emerging powers that alternative ideas, values systems and norms, which run contrary to those espoused under the international human rights project. This paper considers the implications of these shifts on the UK human rights diplomacy not only in a ‘changing Europe’ but also in this context of altering international geopolitical dynamics. Drawing on an initial pilot study on the UK and the EUs approach to human rights diplomacy at the Human Rights Council, it considers a number of channels through which the UK will or could adapt its approach to human rights diplomacy in order to respond to the current challenges that Brexit and these broader geopolitical shifts pose.
