Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress he has made on implementing the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict; and what steps he is taking to help other governments prevent and prosecute those responsible for sexual violence in conflict.

We are implementing the Protocol through advocacy, capacity building and national application. We have translated the Protocol into French, Spanish, Bosnian and Arabic to ensure it is as widely used as possible. We are developing a set of training materials to support its use, regional training modules on how to implement the Protocol in different local contexts, and a series of bespoke training packages. This includes developing long-term training, mentoring and support programmes on documentation and investigation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; providing financial support to the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Casa de La Mujer to implement the Protocol in Colombia; planning a year-long training project for local human rights NGOs and lawyers in Nepal and hosting launch events in Bosnia to raise the profile of the Protocol amongst government, judicial and NGO partners. These plans will help support governments and civil society organisations to be able to prevent and prosecute sexual violence crimes.