Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the conclusions of the report entitled, Two Authorities, One Way, Zero Dissent on arbitrary arrest and torture under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, published in October 2018 by Human Rights Watch.

​The Human Rights Watch report has made some serious and concerning allegations about human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and we have raised our concerns with the Palestinian Ministry of Interior. Officials from our Consulate-General in Jerusalem continue to urge the PA to respect human rights, and have stressed the need to ensure freedom of speech, association and assembly. UK Official Development Assistance does not provide financial assistance or assets to support the PA agencies implicated in the Human Rights Watch report. We continue to have a no contact policy with Hamas in its entirety. The UK delivers training courses and supports the development of training institutions across the PA security sector. These courses serve to reinforce accountability, responsible governance and a common approach to the upholding of human rights and human rights law.