Below is a report by EUROMIL about the first meeting (14-15 June 2007) of a Council of Europe working group which is drawing up recommendations on the human rights of armed forces personnel.

Please note that this is an archived article, and that the rules about Commonwealth recruitment have changed from time to time.

Anyone who is already serving or has served in the UK armed forces can apply to join the British Armed Forces Federation including, of course, those of Commonwealth or foreign nationality.

From Gordon Brown's speech to the Labour Conference:

... and let me talk today about how we will do more to support the great British institutions that best define this country.

The first is the one I spoke about in detail on Sunday when I talked about the mission of our brave men and women in Afghanistan.

The heroism of our fighting men and women is unsurpassed and we owe them a debt we can never fully repay. And let us on behalf of the British people pay tribute to them and their courage today.

The British armed forces truly are the finest in the world. And let us say to them – all British forces will always have all the equipment they need and the best support we can give.

And conference let me say, Britain will work with President Obama and 40 other countries for peace and stability for the people of Afghanistan, and to make sure that terrorism doesn’t come to the streets of Britain.

From Harriet Harman's speech to the Labour Conference:

The lives of women today - and their hopes and ambitions are different from our mothers’. And that is the case

whether you are a girl school leaver in Scotland

or a young mother in Wales

whether you are one of the thousands of wives of our armed forces.

The wives of our servicemen have always held things together at home. And their task has become even more demanding with the men away fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Just like every other woman, service wives want to, and need to, get training, get work, find childcare. But that’s hard if your family has to move regularly and if you are on a base miles away from your parents and in-laws. That’s why Bob Ainsworth, the Secretary of State for Defence, and I are working with ministers across government to make sure that as well as doing all we can to support our armed forces, We are helping our armed forces wives’ so they don’t lose out on new opportunities to get on in their work. Our navy, airforce and soldiers make a great sacrifice for our country and we back them up. Their wives, too, make an enormous personal sacrifice for this country and we will back them up too.

From a Liberal Democrat press release:

MP LEADS CALL FOR A FAIR DEAL FOR OUR FORCES

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 22nd Sep 2009

Hampshire MP, Sandra Gidley, has led Liberal Democrat calls for a fair deal for the men and women of Britain's armed forces at the party's conference in Bournemouth.

Sandra, whose father served in the army, and whose constituency is home to the School of Army Flying, urged delegates to the Liberal Democrat conference to back a motion for better housing for our soldiers, and better access to education for their children.