Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the government of Sudan on the legal status and detention of Dr. Amin Mekki Medani, Farouk Abu Eissa and Farah Ibrahim Mohamed Algar.
Answered by Lord Swire
Officials from our Embassy in Khartoum have made representations to the Government of Sudan about the detention of Dr. Amin Mekki Medani, Farouk Abu Eissa and Farah Ibrahim Mohamed al-Agar. Additionally, we issued a statement with our Troika partners (the United States and Norway) on 23 December calling for their immediate release.
Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has received any reports from the government of Sudan regarding the legal status and detention of Dr Amin Mekki Medani, Farouk Abu Eissa and Farah Ibrahim Mohamed Alagar.
Answered by Lord Swire
We have not received any reports from the Government of Sudan on the legal status and detention of Dr Amin Mekki Medani, Farouk Abu Eissa and Farah Ibrahim Mohamed Alagar. Officials from our Embassy in Khartoum have been told by the detainees’ legal team that they remain under arrest but have not been charged. Our officials will keep monitoring their cases.Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made in the last 12 months to the government of the People's Republic of China on organ harvesting practices in that country.
Answered by Lord Swire
We are aware that organs removed from executed prisoners are used for human transplantation purposes in China. Chinese law requires that prisoners give prior consent for their organs to be used in this way.
In March 2012, the Chinese government announced plans to phase out the use of organs from executed prisoners for transplant and to create a national organ donation system. We continue to encourage China to make further progress in this respect, including by sharing best practice.
We most recently raised allegations of forced organ removal and the treatment of detainees in China at the UK China Human Rights Dialogue in May 2014. We also highlight our concerns publicly in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy (www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk).
Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the authorities in South Sudan over the need for the NGO Bill in that country to ensure that citizens and civil society organisations can engage in humanitarian activity, enjoy freedom of association and use monitoring and accountability systems in accordance with the general assumptions of the New Deal.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
I raised concerns about the proposed NGO bill with South Sudan Foreign Minister Dr Barnaba Benjamin during a meeting in New York on 25 September. I have since written to Dr Benjamin to reinforce those concerns and provide more detail. The British Embassy in Juba has also made a number of representations to the South Sudanese authorities on this issue over the past year. In September, I met a wide selection of British NGOs operating in South Sudan, to discuss, amongst other topics, their concern about the possible impact of the NGO bill.