Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when his Department last raised the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan in the (a) UN Human Rights Council and (b) General Assembly.

The government continues to call for the human rights of all Afghans to be protected. We condemned the Taliban's actions against women and girls in a statement at the UN Third Committee on 8 October and in a statement on Afghanistan at the 57th UN Human Rights Council on 9 October. The future of Afghanistan as a country at peace with itself, its neighbours and the international community, relies on there being human rights for all.