Development Aid: Females

(asked on 11th March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to help ensure that membership of a minority faith is recognised as an additional factor of vulnerability in her Department's work to support women and girls.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 21st March 2022

We recognise that women and girls from religious minorities can often suffer because of both their gender and their faith. That is why we ensure our human rights policy work considers the intersectionality of human rights, including the importance of addressing the specific vulnerabilities experienced by women and girls from religious minority communities. The Foreign Secretary has publicly committed to putting women and girls at the heart of foreign and development policy, this will be set out in the upcoming International Development Strategy and the upcoming Women and Girls Strategy, which will emphasise the importance of taking account of intersectionality and those facing multiple exclusions including on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or belief. FCDO also has ongoing policy work on Freedom of Religion or Belief - Fiona Bruce was appointed as the Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief in December 2020.

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