Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK is deeply concerned about the surge in violence against women and girls (VAWG) during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is more important than ever to support safe spaces and services for survivors of violence. These are essential and life-saving.

The UK is already the largest donor to the UN Population Fund and we have committed an additional £10 million to their COVID-19 response, which will provide services to women and girls through safe spaces. We have provided £20 million to support the UN Children’s Fund COVID-19 response, strengthening and establishing response and referral mechanisms for survivors. We are urgently reorienting existing bilateral programmes to ensure women and girls can continue to access support during the lockdown, including safe spaces. For example, in Nepal, DFID is financing safe spaces for women in nine shelters and 42 COVID-19 quarantine sites. In Uganda, DFID is supporting the Government's response to the spikes in VAWG by funding 13 shelters across the country and supporting revisions of standard operating procedures to ensure safety of frontline staff and survivors.

DFID is committed to protecting the most vulnerable children in the world. We are working with international partners to ensure that child protection is integrated into a comprehensive response to COVID-19 that supports those groups who will be hit the hardest and are often with limited or no state protection. We are also working to ensure that existing UK programming is responsive to the challenge of supporting those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DFID is committed to protecting the most vulnerable children around the world including children who live and work on the streets. We provide significant support to protect children from violence in conflict and humanitarian crises and to reduce their risks of violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect.

DFID’s Education support focuses on the needs of the most marginalised children. In August 2019 at the G7 Summit, the UK Prime Minister announced £90 million of new UK support for education in emergencies and crises across the world, this will support 600,000 children living in conflict areas and areas of protracted crises. This investment is key to the PM’s plan to ensure more girls benefit from 12 years of education. This funding will provide safe spaces and psycho-social support to some of the most vulnerable children in the world.

We recognise that that older people are disproportionately impacted and at more risk of severe complications and death due to COVID-19.

As well as the primary impacts of COVID-19, marginalised groups also experience secondary impacts of virus. This includes reduced access to healthcare, food and medications, due to increased pressure on healthcare systems, markets and supply chains, made worse by pre-existing accessibility challenges and barriers. We also understand that older people live in a variety of settings where social distancing advice may be challenging to enact, such as humanitarian settings or where older people are living in residential care. We are working hard to ensure that our help reaches those most in need, including older people, through close collaboration with our partners.

Our funding is supporting a range of initiatives and partners to ensure that it can reach those in need and strengthen fragile health services in the world’s poorest countries where there is a high risk of the disease spreading rapidly. This includes supporting the United Nation’s Global Humanitarian Response Plan to tackle COVID-19 and help to the most vulnerable across the globe. The plan explicitly identifies older people given their susceptibility to the virus and their broader vulnerability. Our latest UK aid announcement on 12 April of £200 million, is supporting humanitarian organisations to help reduce mass infections in developing countries that often lack the healthcare systems to track and halt the virus. This includes £130 million to UN agencies in response to their COVID-19 humanitarian appeals.

In addition, we are redirecting existing support and programmes ensure responses to COVID-19 are fully inclusive, including supporting the needs of older people.

The Summit will bring together African leaders and delegations from 21 countries who have been invited: Algeria, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda.

6 multilateral organisations and international financial institutions have also been invited: African Development Bank, African Union, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Monetary Fund, United Nations, World Bank.

We have invited hundreds of UK and African business representatives and representatives from Civil Society Organisations.

The UK-Africa Investment Summit will create new lasting partnerships that will deliver more investment, jobs and growth. This will benefit people and businesses across Africa and in the UK. The IMF estimates that Africa is home to eight of the world’s 15 fastest growing economies. By 2050, over 2 billion people will live in Africa and 1 in 4 global consumers will be African. But African countries receive less than 4% of foreign direct investment and around 20 million jobs a year must be created to keep pace with population growth. Hosted by the Prime Minister, the Summit will bring together UK and African business representatives, African leaders and delegations from 21 countries, international institutions and young entrepreneurs. As we strengthen our place in the world, we want the UK to be the investment partner of choice for African nations. We have world-leading expertise on tech and innovation, the City of London is the number one global exchange for African businesses, and we are committed to green growth.

At the Climate Ambition Summit on 12 December 2020, the Prime Minister announced that the UK will no longer provide any new direct financial or promotional support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas, other than in exceptional circumstances, and will align its support to enable clean energy exports.

A public consultation was announced at the same time to seek stakeholders’ views on i) how to enable an accelerated growth in UK clean energy exports, and ii) on the impacts of the timing of implementation of the policy shift on international fossil fuel energy sector support.

The consultation can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/aligning-uk-international-support-for-the-clean-energy-transition.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) uses published national statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to track investment involving UK companies in other countries, including African countries. We also have an internal monitoring system that tracks business investment activity supported by DIT.

DIT provides market access entry advice for UK firms looking to invest in African countries. We have established an online deal platform that matches UK investors with high-growth African businesses, and an Africa Investors Group which comprises some of the largest UK investors in Africa.

Based on our initial assessment, the Africa Investment Conference was a success, with more than 2,800 visitors including over 1,000 individual delegates from the African and UK business communities respectively, and a positive uptake of businesses interested in further engagement after the conference.

We are carrying out an evaluation of the conference to obtain more information about its impact, and plan to follow up the event with further activity both in Africa nations and the UK.

The United Kingdom and Andean Countries agreed in May 2019 to transition the European Union-Andean Countries Free Trade Agreement. The agreement does not include any provisions regarding visa reform.

The UK engages in and encourages transparent consultation with civil society organisations on proposals for the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Senior UK officials held a briefing with civil society organisations on Tuesday 25 July 2023, which forty representatives attended. The UK delegation also intended to engage with civil society at the Preparatory Committee.

UK officials will deliver statements highlighting Russia's illegal war of aggression and condemning the Russian Government's reprehensible actions which are an egregious violation of international law and the UN Charter. The UK will not have bilateral meetings with Russian state representatives but remains open to attending meetings among the five Nuclear Weapon States in order to fulfil our obligations under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, and reduce risks around miscalculation.

I [Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and United Nations], represented the UK at the EU Indo-Pacific Forum in Stockholm on 13 May. I had substantive dialogue with many EU and Indo-Pacific Ministers during the meeting, as well as bilaterals with Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marsudi, Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Rabbani Khar, Bangladesh's Minister of Information, Mahmud and Sweden's Foreign Minister Billström. Discussions at the Forum were useful and demonstrated strong collective commitment to promoting peace and security, stability and shared prosperity across the region. The UK will continue engaging with our EU and Indo-Pacific partners in multiple formats to support a free and open Indo-Pacific.

I [Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and United Nations], represented the UK at the EU Indo-Pacific Forum in Stockholm on 13 May. I had substantive dialogue with many EU and Indo-Pacific Ministers during the meeting, as well as bilaterals with Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marsudi, Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Rabbani Khar, Bangladesh's Minister of Information, Mahmud and Sweden's Foreign Minister Billström. Discussions at the Forum were useful and demonstrated strong collective commitment to promoting peace and security, stability and shared prosperity across the region. The UK will continue engaging with our EU and Indo-Pacific partners in multiple formats to support a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Poor implementation of South Sudan's peace agreement to date is driving violence and the humanitarian crisis. It is vital that the South Sudanese government deliver progress according to timelines set out in their Roadmap. The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) and the Ceasefire & Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring & Verification Mechanism (CTSAMVM) play an important part in monitoring the peace agreement. The FCDO funds in-kind support through the placement of technical experts in both CTSAMVM and RJMEC. In Financial Year 2021-2022, this amounted to £1.2 million in-kind support and in Financial Year 2022-2023 support totalled £407,261. For Financial Year 2023-2024, the FCDO has committed to up to £480,000 continued in-kind support.

The UK is the largest donor to the Health Pooled Fund (HPF) in South Sudan providing up to £175 million from 2018 to 2024. In August 2022, the FCDO, on behalf of HPF donors, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of South Sudan setting out how we'll work together to transition responsibility for funding for eight state hospitals. HPF completed the phased withdrawal from the eight state and referral hospitals by 31 March 2023. In mid-March 2023, the Minister of Health for South Sudan reported that the Government of South Sudan would be procuring essential medicines for the unsupported health facilities.

Faith-based actors play a crucial role, particularly in the areas of peacebuilding, health and education, across South Sudan. The Ecumenical visit in February 2023 demonstrates how the Churches can help to support peace building at a local and national level in South Sudan. The UK engages regularly with South Sudanese civil society, including faith-based organisations, through humanitarian and diplomatic fora. The UK-funded Peacebuilding Opportunities Fund (POF) has supported communities to reach local peace agreements, ensuring women's participation, and integrating gendered provisions including the return and reintegration of abducted women and children. The UK is chair of the Humanitarian Donor Group in South Sudan and is an important voice in coordinating donor response to the crisis. This includes through diplomatic action that aims to ensure the protection of civilians and improving the operating environment so humanitarian organisations can access difficult areas and reach those most in need.

The UK unequivocally condemns all attacks on humanitarian workers who must be able to carry out their vital work safely.  The UK is chair of the Humanitarian Donor Group in South Sudan and is an important voice in coordinating donor response to the crisis. This includes through diplomatic action that aims to ensure the protection of civilians and improving the operating environment so humanitarians can access difficult areas and reach those most in need.  The UK called on the Government of South Sudan to remove all constraints on humanitarian access at the UN Security Council on 6 March 2023. We also called for the Government of South Sudan to act urgently to address the ongoing theft of humanitarian resources.

The UK has supported the health sector in Kasai province since 2013. Minister Mitchell visited the UK's bilateral health programme in Kasai on March 19. The programme supports implementation of The Democratic Republic of the Congo's policy on Universal Health Coverage by strengthening pillars of the national health system and increasing access to lifesaving reproductive, maternal and child health services (including nutrition and family planning).

From 2017 to 2022 UK supported provinces increased childhood immunisation coverage from 63 percent to 90 percent, and the proportion of births attended by a skilled attendant from 83 percent to 99 percent. The prevalence of child malnutrition was halved over the same period.

The UK has taken a leadership role at the first UN Water Conference in decades, which coincides with World Water Day, as co-chair of the interactive dialogue on water for health. Lord Goldsmith, the FCDO Minister of State with responsibility for Climate and Environment portfolios, opened the meeting and announced new support to strengthen Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) systems in up to five countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. This will prevent disease, protect people's health and safeguard the environment. It contributes to the UK government's commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, children and babies by 2030.

The Aid Dialogue between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia took place on 15-16 March. Discussions highlighted how the UK and Saudi Arabia can work together to address global food insecurity, delivering humanitarian aid including in areas of conflict, targeting support where it is most needed across Africa and enhancing the effectiveness of aid. As major global aid donors, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia are committed to partnering together to tackle global challenges and support those most in need.

Implementation of the 2018 Peace Agreement remains the best prospect to a lasting end to conflict in South Sudan. Full implementation is needed to address the instability and humanitarian crisis that affect millions of South Sudanese. However progress is slow. The international community has needed to maintain pressure for the Parties to deliver their commitments.

Recent incidents of violence have put the progress that has been made since 2018 at risk. We have made our concerns clear in Juba and at the UN Security Council. Renewed public commitment by the Parties to the Peace Agreement and progress on unifying the armed forces are welcome. Given the slow pace of implementation and continued incidents of violence we have made clear that South Sudan's leaders must continue to deliver progress. We also urge the region, as guarantors of the Peace Agreement, to use their influence with the Parties to deliver progress.

Putin's illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is leading to further steep price rises in commodity markets, exacerbating the already deeply worrying deterioration in global food security. Even before the war, almost 1 billion people in 92 countries did not have enough food to eat on any given day, and 55 countries were already in acute hunger crises, emergency or famine conditions.

We know from the last crisis that the most immediate way to contain prices is to keep trade flowing. The UK has led a statement at the WTO, supported by nearly 60 countries, including a commitment by signatories to keep their food and agricultural markets open, predictable and transparent. We have announced a package of emergency humanitarian assistance to address critical rising food insecurity in the Horn of Africa and in Yemen and have pledged £286 million to meet needs in Afghanistan. Over the next 3 years, we will direct £3 billion to the most vulnerable countries and people to help them recover from crises. With our G7 allies, we support Germany's proposal for a Global Alliance on Food Security, to help scale up a rapid, needs-based coordinated response in a way that avoids a fragmented global response.

The UK's Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford MP, represented the UK at the Horn of Africa Drought Roundtable on 26 April, and announced a £25 million package of support for Somalia. Senior officials also attended the event including the UK's Envoy for the Red Sea and Horn of Africa as well as the UK's Development Director for Somalia.

The UK also played a critical role in convening the recent 'UN Horn of Africa Drought Roundtable' which took place in late April in Geneva. This included working with states in the region and the UN to ensure appropriate levels of participation. It helped to bring much needed focus to the drought and importantly it mobilised roughly US$400 million in new funding.

The UK is a long-term supporter of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides protection and core services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and across the wider region. The UK is working with UNRWA and other donors to improve UNRWA's financial viability. This includes broadening UNRWA's donor base, encouraging the full disbursement of pledges and encouraging support through multi-year funding. The UK continues to monitor closely the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza.

We are aware of the report. Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories is a human rights priority for the FCDO. As a friend of Israel, we have a regular dialogue on human rights. This includes encouraging the Government of Israel to abide by its obligations under international law.

The Afghan relocations and assistance policy was set up to facilitate the resettlement of Afghan nationals who worked with the UK Government in Afghanistan. A number of gender and women's rights activists were evacuated as special cases under Operation Pitting, and those still in Afghanistan may be eligible for resettlement under the Afghan citizens' resettlement scheme.

The Secretary-General's Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) shows how far we still need to travel to end the suffering of children. The UK is particularly concerned about the increase in violations committed against children in countries already on the Council's agenda, like Somalia. We have called on the Secretary General to ensure that next year's report includes the plight of children in Ethiopia and Mozambique. As a member of the UN Security Council CAAC Working Group, the UK applies diplomatic pressure to perpetrators to enter into UN action plans to verify and release any children associated with armed groups and forces, to prevent re-recruitment and ensure the provision of appropriate reintegration and rehabilitation assistance. Recently, we have negotiated strong calls to action for parties to conflict in Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia.

The UK is firmly committed to ending the recruitment and use of child soldiers and to protecting all children affected by armed conflict. In the coming months, we will be reviewing the UK's approach to tackling violent conflict, and will continue to ensure that the children and armed conflict agenda is reflected in this.

The Government remains steadfast in its commitment to championing gender equality, including through the Commonwealth at the next CHOGM. Our work on promoting gender equality includes standing up for every girl's right to 12 years of quality education, promoting sexual and reproductive rights, working to end gender based violence and supporting women's economic and political empowerment. The FCDO's work is underpinned by the understanding that the Sustainable Development Goals will not be attained without concerted national and international effort to foster the equality and empowerment of women and girls everywhere.

Together with our NATO Allies, we will continue to provide assistance to the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces and build the capability of the Afghan state institutions to counter terrorism. The National Crime Agency develops and refines relationships with domestic and international partners, and will continue to do so in Afghanistan, as a critical function of the UK's counter-narcotics activity. We continue to make clear to all sides that any political settlement must protect the progress made in the country, including the rights of women and minorities. The UK is consulting with partner countries, including through the G7, to agree a collective approach to development and humanitarian support to Afghanistan. Support to any future Afghan government depends on progress in the Afghan peace negotiations, and respect for democracy and human rights.

The UK, alongside our NATO Allies, is committed to our enduring partnership with Afghanistan. The UK is playing a leading role as we transition to a new phase of international support for Afghanistan. We are coordinating closely with the US and NATO Allies as we continue to collectively support Afghanistan and its people, including efforts to counter terrorism, through our diplomatic and development work and support to the security sector. The Prime Minister discussed Afghanistan with US Secretary of State Blinken on 4 May. The Foreign Secretary discussed Afghanistan with NATO Allies on 14 April, as well as with Secretary Blinken on 3 May. We continue to make clear to all sides that any political settlement must protect the progress made in the country, including the rights of women and minorities.

The new G7 Compact of commitments to prevent famine and humanitarian crises was discussed and agreed by Foreign and Development Ministers in May and annexed to their formal Communiqué on gov.uk. Tackling the risk of famine and humanitarian crises is a priority of the UK's G7 Presidency. We aim to use the Leaders' Summit in June to build on the successful agreement of the Compact in May and the second meeting of the Foreign and Development Ministers Meeting plans to assess how far the outcomes have been implemented. The G7 Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Crises Panel will also ensure a continuous monitoring of the Compact commitments throughout 2021.

The 42 countries are those with populations one step from catastrophe or famine which are in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 4 emergency levels, the gold standard for food security data and analysis. The initial $7 billion committed in the Compact is the G7's collective contribution to ensuring humanitarian funding reaches those most acutely food insecure. It is for individual G7 Member States to decide how they will allocate their own contributions throughout the calendar year.

We have worked together with other Call to Action partners (Switzerland, World Bank etc) to reach out to countries and institutions to join. To date, an additional 28 countries, eight International Organisations, four industry bodies, and five donors / charities have joined. Some other countries have been unable to join but have taken actions to reduce the barriers limiting the flow of remittances on the back of the Call to Action.

The 28 countries that have joined the Call to Action are: Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Yemen, Jordan, Georgia, New Zealand, Niger, Panama, Rwanda, Vanuatu, Cote d'Ivoire, Fiji. Turkey, Honduras, Australia, Guatemala, Eritrea, Tonga, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Cambodia.

Positive steps have been taken by over 44 countries to counteract the decrease in remittances due to the impact of COVID - for example, actions targeted at improving access to remittances and financial services, expanding Healthcare and Social Safety Nets, and supporting food security. We also saw several companies respond by waiving their transfer fees.

In the UK, we amended the Health Protection Regulations to include money transfer organisations as essential service providers, ensuring that they were able to continue operating during the COVID-19 lockdown period.

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, in April of this year, before the creation of the FCDO, the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) rapidly reprogrammed £21.24 million from our bilateral aid budget to provide critical support to primary health care in Zimbabwe during COVID-19. Through UK aid funding provided to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) we ensured vital services continued such as immunisations, pre and post-natal care and treatment for malnutrition. This COVID-19 support has also provided community messaging, support for frontline workers, water sanitation and hygiene improvement in schools and health facilities, and humanitarian food and cash aid to help mitigate the impact of the crisis on the most vulnerable. We will continue to work closely with partners to track resource mobilisation and advocate for appropriate prioritisation.

The UK is committed to the promotion of media freedom and the protection of journalists in Zimbabwe, both through direct engagement with the Zimbabwean Government, civil society and opposition, and through programmatic work. We have supported the work of the High Level Legal Panel of Experts following the London Global Conference for Media Freedom in 2019. This included the production of independent advice on meeting international norms in media legislation, which we have shared with the Zimbabwean Government and civil society organisations. The UK provides extensive financial and technical assistance to civil society organisations working to promote media freedoms and support journalists. We do not publicly name our civil society partners to protect them.

Zimbabwe has in the past expressed an openness to joining the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which the UK would support if it were to happen. We engage the Government regularly on progress towards signing EITI, most recently during the WTO Trade Policy Review of Zimbabwe, in which the UK questioned Zimbabwe on progress on their stated commitment to make progress towards signing EITI in 2020. As well as in country engagement from British Embassy officials, EITI Board Chair, Helen Clarke, visited Zimbabwe in February of this year.

Promoting the right to Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) for all is one of the UK's longstanding human rights priorities and we welcome the focus that this International Day brings on FoRB. Noting the COVID-19 pandemic, we have used our social media channels to mark this year's International FoRB day, underlining our commitment to FoRB for all. As Minister responsible for Human Rights, I also participated in an event on 27 October which focused on the linkage between the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative and Freedom of Religion or Belief. We will continue to raise awareness of religious persecution and stand up for the rights of members of minority communities around the world.

All FCDO Ministers raise concerns about human rights violations and abuses, including on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), where appropriate. This work is longstanding. As the UK Minister of State for Human Rights, I also champion and lead on FoRB as part of my wider responsibilities and through multilateral fora including the United Nations.

The role of soft power is being considered as part of the Integrated Review of foreign policy, defence, security and international development. This will be informed by the conclusions of the cross-government work already undertaken on our strategic approach to this area.

The imposition of the National Security Law has significantly changed key assumptions underpinning the UK extradition treaty arrangements with Hong Kong.

The Foreign Secretary expressed concern about Article 38 of the legislation during a statement to Parliament on 1 July, noting that it is not entirely clear how the provision will be applied. He further noted that this is something that tourists and visitors from all around the world would be concerned about.

We are also particularly concerned about Articles 55 to 59 of the law, which gives mainland Chinese authorities the ability to assume jurisdiction over certain cases and try those cases in mainland Chinese courts. The National Security Law does not provide legal or judicial safeguards in such cases.

We have not raised the issue of release of prisoners in light of COVID-19. We have discussed the impact of COVID-19 in Pakistan regularly with senior officials of the Government of Pakistan. We continue to raise human rights and to urge the Government of Pakistan to guarantee the fundamental rights of its citizens, regardless of their belief. Most recently, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon raised our concerns about Human Rights in Pakistan by letter with Dr Mazari on 5 June. We remain concerned about the situation for prisoners in detention under trial in Pakistan, particularly for blasphemy cases.

The "outstanding issue" mentioned was not intended to refer to any particular obstacle preventing the repatriation of British crew members, but was a reference to the fact that although no British national passengers remain on any cruise ships, we continue to work on the outstanding issue of supporting the return of British crew members. We are in direct contact with all of the main cruise ship operators, as well as with many crew members and their families. We will continue to support operators to ensure the welfare and safety of British crew. Our overseas missions are liaising closely with local authorities in an effort to facilitate disembarkation and ensure British crew can access flights home.

Where a person is unable to self-isolate, the Government will assist them in finding a facility in which to do so. If you cannot safely self-isolate in your own accommodation, you should tell a border force official as you arrive at the UK border who can direct you to the booking system.

The Government has made in excess of £3.2bn of funding available to local authorities in England to assist them in managing the pressures arising out of the pandemic.

The Bishop of Truro's independent Review of Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Support for Persecuted Christians recommended that the FCO "establish[es] permanently, and in perpetuity, the role of Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief". The choice of Special Envoy is a decision for the Prime Minister. I was honoured to be appointed in 2018 as the UK's first ever envoy, an appointment reconfirmed by the current Prime Minister in July 2019. Rehman Chishti MP succeeded me as Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) in September 2019, but I continue to champion FoRB as Minister of State with responsibility for Human Rights.

We condemn the appalling abduction and continued captivity of Leah Sharibu and other Christian and Muslim girls by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa (ISWA). The UK has repeatedly called for their release and remains committed to supporting the Nigerian Government in their efforts to achieve this. The Prime Minister discussed UK support to fighting terrorism in Nigeria with President Buhari at the UK Africa Investment Summit in January. The Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief met Leah's mother in February to express the UK's continued commitment to help Nigeria secure the release of all abductees.

We will continue to engage with the Government of Nigeria in support of urgent action to secure the return of all abductees.

In February, I raised concerns about the situation for prisoners in detention under trial in Pakistan, particularly for blasphemy cases including that of Junaid Hafeez, as well as the UK's opposition to the death penalty with Dr Shireen Mazari, Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights. The British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Christian Turner CMG, raised the UK Government's concerns about the death penalty and misuse of blasphemy legislation with Dr Mazari in January.

Since then we have discussed the impact of COVID-19 in Pakistan regularly with senior stakeholders. We have not raised the issue of release of prisoners in light of COVID-19.

To mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) government buildings across the UK and, where locally appropriate, our overseas missions will fly the Rainbow flag. The theme of IDAHOBIT 2020 is "breaking the silence". One of the core objectives of our human rights work is increased respect and equality for all members of society. The British Government is proud to promote LGBT rights worldwide through our global network and our global leadership position. We work through existing international mechanisms and institutions to promote tolerance and non-discrimination against LGBT people and to address discriminatory laws.

As with each year we plan to mark the day on social media, celebrating how far we've come and noting the challenges we still have to face.

We welcome the ongoing work by the Swiss Government and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue on mediation efforts between parties in Cameroon. We urge the Government of Cameroon to remain engaged in this process and help to bring peace and stability to the North-West and South-West (Anglophone) regions. The British High Commissioner to Cameroon regularly engages in high-level discussions with the Government of Cameroon on the Anglophone crisis, including the mediation process led by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. The UK stands ready to support all credible peacebuilding initiatives.