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 the Republic of the Sudan on changes to that country's law on (a) reasonable self-defence against sexual violence as a legal defence in cases where a person has been killed, (b) prohibition of marriage below the age of 18 and (c) recognition of marital rape.

The British Ambassador to Sudan has raised the importance of reform of the law on forced marriage, and of laws that discriminate against women, at senior levels with the Government of Sudan, most recently in a meeting with Vice President Hassabo Mohammed Abdulrahman on 17 June. The UK continues to encourage Sudan to sign and ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and to make clear our support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights principle that marriage should be entered into only with the free and full consent of spouses.