PHRG was founded in 1976 by Eric Lubbock, Lord Avebury, after he was encouraged to concentrate more on international human rights by Martin Ennals, the then director of Amnesty International.[1] Avebury was Chairman of PHRG until 1997 when Labour MP Ann Clwyd took over. Avebury remained Vice-Chair of PHRG along with Jeremy Corbyn MP until his death in 2016.[2]
The organisation was run from Clwyd's office with funding from the Barrow Cadbury Trust.[3] The APPG's chair is currently Fabian Hamilton.[4]
The organisation undertakes activities such as writing briefings for UK attendees at the Inter-Parliamentary Union and organising meetings in Parliamentary committee rooms on diverse thematic and country-related human rights situations. They have held meetings on subjects ranging from statelessness[5] to Dalit rights[6] and undertaken country visits to Pakistan to report on the situation of the Ahmadiyya community.[7]
The Human Rights Handbook (1979) stated listed situations which PHRG had advocated on in its first three years to include 'the abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union; human rights violations in Brazil, Argentina, Chile; human rights and the Press; Namibia; human rights and the UN...'[8]
In December 2015, Clwyd stated in an article for Amnesty International that the UK should remain committed to the international human rights framework. This came at a time in which there was a growing perception that the British government, especially after the narrow Conservative victory in the 2015 General Election, had de-prioritised human rights as part of the work of the Foreign Office.[9] Sir Simon McDonald, Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office admitted to a Commons committee in 2015 that human rights work "was secondary also to the need to promote British companies abroad", according to The Independent.[10]
Following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in 2015 and the death of Lord Avebury in 2016, new members such as SNP MP Margaret Ferrier joined the group.[11]
