Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when she intends to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for West Lancashire dated 17 November 2021 regarding persecution of Christians around the world and the Bishop of Truro's 2019 report, reference ZA58272.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
A response was sent on 21 December 2021, and an additional copy has been sent to the Member's office.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on the case of Maira Shahbaz.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
It is a longstanding Government policy not to comment on individual cases, where to do so may put individuals and their family members in danger.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to prevent sexual violence towards Christian women and girls around the world.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Foreign Secretary has put ending violence against women and girls, including the use of sexual violence in war, at the heart of UK foreign and development policy. The UK is building a new consensus with our partners to condemn sexual violence in conflict as a "red line". We are committed to exploring all options for further international action, including the possibility of a new international convention. Through our investments of up to £67.5 million in the What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale programme, we are also scaling up proven violence prevention approaches globally, including sexual violence, for the most at-risk groups of women and girls.
In 2020, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon launched the Declaration of Humanity, which unites multiple faiths and beliefs in a common front to challenge damaging societal norms and calls for support for survivors of sexual violence internationally. Bilaterally, Ministers and officials regularly raise specific cases of concern, and discuss practices and laws that discriminate on the basis of religion or belief. Multilaterally, we also work with the UN, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Council of Europe, G7 and other multilateral fora to promote Freedom of Religion or Belief. In 2022, the UK will host an international Ministerial conference on freedom of religion or belief to energise collective efforts on this agenda as well as a major global summit to unite world leaders around action to prevent sexual violence in conflict.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of progress in the implementation of the recommendations from the Bishop of Truro's independent review on persecution of Christians and freedom of religion or belief.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK is committed to defending freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all, and promoting respect between different religious and non-religious communities. Promoting the right to FoRB is one of the UK's longstanding human rights priorities.
The Bishop of Truro's review provided recommendations for an enhanced Government response to support members of all faiths, beliefs, and those of no religious belief. We are making good progress on implementing all the recommendations, including on the recommendation to review the recommendations independently three years from publication of the report.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure that Taiwan can work with the international community effectively to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and recover from the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Taiwan plays a valuable but voluntarily role in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, despite not being a member state of the UN. The UK Government welcomes Taiwan's contribution and continues to work closely with Taiwan on this and other matters, including the fight against Covid-19. More broadly, the UK support's Taiwan's meaningful participation in international organisations where statehood is not a prerequisite. The UK believes that the people of Taiwan have a valuable contribution to make on issues of global concern and this includes on sustainable development and their effective fight against the pandemic.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if his Department will conduct further research using programme budgets and evaluations as recommended by DME for Peace's report entitled, Research Study for the Department for International Development, Value for Money Investment in People to People Programming in Israel and Palestine, published in March 2021.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
We are taking forward relevant recommendations in the research study undertaken by the Department for International Development "Value for Money Investment in People to People Programming in Israel and Palestine". We firmly believe a just and lasting resolution that ends the occupation and delivers peace for both Israelis and Palestinians is long overdue. That is why we support steps to increase understanding and dialogue between the parties that can help create the conditions for meaningful negotiations. We will continue to fund peacebuilding projects focused on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and have increased our focus on monitoring and evaluation within these projects.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for West Lancashire of 21 May 2021 on the Israel-Palestine conflict, reference ZA56540.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
This letter was responded to on the 3rd August 2021.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for West Lancashire of 9 June 2021 on arms exports to Israel, reference ZA56721.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
This letter was responded to on the 25th June 2021.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for West Lancashire dated 21 May 2021 on protests in Colombia, reference ZA56570.
Answered by Wendy Morton
This letter was responded to on 27 August 2021.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for West Lancashire of 9 June 2021 on religious violence in India, reference ZA56734.
Answered by Nigel Adams
I apologise for the unacceptable delay in responding to the Member for West Lancashire's correspondence on religious violence in India. We have now responded.