Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, for what reason the UK abstained from voting on the motion entitled, Ensuring respect for international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem at the 21st Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council.

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend, the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) issued a press release on 23 July stating that:

"Today's UN Human Rights Council resolution will not help achieve a lasting ceasefire. It is fundamentally unbalanced and will complicate the process by introducing unnecessary new mechanisms.

The UK could not support this resolution, but recognising the strength of feeling about the loss of life and the desire by a large number of members of the Council to express that feeling in a resolution, the UK joined other EU nations in abstaining in the vote."