The Conservatives unveiled yesterday plans to restyle British embassies as “freedom houses” to promote human rights and support victims of repressive regimes around the world.

British diplomats should be required to seek out and support dissident individuals and groups, give them a platform and should even attend demonstrations, the Tories will say.

The proposals are set out in a document to be presented by William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary. It has been submitted by the party’s Human Rights Commission in its first annual report.

Mr Hague, who has pledged to put human rights at the heart of Conservative foreign policy, indicates his backing for its recommendations in a foreword to the report. He writes: “We have the privilege of living in freedom. But with that privilege comes the responsibility to use our liberty to speak up for those who are denied it.”

The most radical proposals are to review the role of British diplomats and embassies overseas, based on ideas in a book by Mark Palmer, a former US ambassador to Hungary.

The report says: “Ambassadors and other diplomats should be required to be proactive in supporting dissidents and documenting human rights violations and in assisting victims of human rights violations . . . Embassies should become freedom houses and ambassadors should provide dissidents with a platform.”

A statement from Mr Hague added that ambassadors “where appropriate — should be willing to join pro-democracy demonstrations”.

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