Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department taking through the (a) UN, (b) 7 and (c) other multilaterals to support freedom of religion or belief globally.

The UK ensures Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) remains on the international platform through our multilateral engagement.

At the UN, we regularly take part in Interactive Dialogues with the UN Special Rapporteur for FoRB, most recently on 24 October. We also cosponsored a side event at the 57th session of the Human Rights Council on combatting intolerance.

At the 22nd G7 Speakers' Meeting in September, we actively engaged in drafting the resulting Declaration and were pleased to see a commitment to FoRB for all included.

We are an active member of the Article 18 Alliance, and recently attended the International Ministerial Conference on FoRB in Berlin. The UK delivered a national statement at the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimensions Conference, in October, on FoRB and fundamental freedoms.