Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Colombian counterpart on (a) offering a date-specific official invitation to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders to visit Colombia and (b) ensuring that the mandate of the UN mission to Colombia with regards to the monitoring the human rights situation is maintained.

We encourage the Colombian Government to invite the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights to visit Colombia.

At the request of the Colombian Government, the UK led negotiations which resulted in UNSC resolution 2377. The resolution establishes the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia to monitor and verify the implementation of the Peace Agreement with the FARC. I support the work of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Colombia, which monitors the human rights situation and works closely with the UN Mission. On 20 December 2017, I announced that the OHCHR would be included in a package of additional UK support to the Peace Process in Colombia. ​