Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to challenge human rights violations in Ethiopia.

We are extremely concerned by reports of widespread human rights violations and abuses in Ethiopia. Civilians must be protected and the violence must stop. The UK is supporting the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure that their joint investigation into atrocities in Tigray, with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, is independent, transparent and impartial and holds the parties to this conflict directly responsible for their actions. It will issue its report on 1 November. We are also examining how we can best support institutions undertaking investigations into Human Rights abuses and violations. The Foreign Secretary, our Ambassador in Addis Ababa and I continue to raise human rights issues in our discussions with the Ethiopian Government and more broadly we have reminded all warring parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law.