Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to Report of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia published on 19 September 2022, what steps she will take to support accountability for acts of rape and other sexual violence found by that report to have been committed by personnel of (a) Eritrean Defence Forces, (b) Tigrayan forces, (c) Ethiopian National Defence Force and (d) Fano militia.

The UK co-sponsored the resolution mandating the creation of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE). We will be strongly supporting the renewal of the Commission's mandate at the forthcoming 52nd Session of the Human Rights Council, as made clear in the statement delivered by the UK's Ambassador for Human Rights on 22 September. We are urging all parties to facilitate its investigations, for the Ethiopian Government to cooperate with the Commission, and to support the extension of its mandate at this session. The British Embassy in Ethiopia regularly raises human rights issues with the Ethiopian Government.

The UK's Human Rights and Peacebuilding programme (HARP) in Ethiopia is providing support to build the capacity of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, including enhanced investigative capacity, and to establish a national conflict research facility through Conciliation Resources and the Rift Valley Institute.