Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help support civil society organisations working on (a) human rights and (b) democratic freedoms in Venezuela.

The UK firmly supports the right of civil society to operate freely in all countries, including Venezuela. We remain deeply concerned by restrictive legislation brought into law last year and publicly raised our concerns about the bill. We actively engage with civil society and human rights defenders in Venezuela, and run local projects to deliver UK objectives. We repeatedly call for human rights to be protected and for the cooperation of the Venezuelan authorities in bringing about a democratic transition, most recently at the Human Rights Council on 18 March 2025.