The purpose of this letter is to clarify some of the legal issues underlying the concept of the State duty to protect against human rights abuses by non-State actors under international law... The United Kingdom agrees that certain treaty provisions may impose an express or implied duty on States to protect against non-State human rights abuses. However, it does not consider that there is a general State duty to protect under the core United Nations human rights treaties, nor that such a duty is generally agreed to exist as a matter of customary international law.