Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he has taken with international partners to help prevent human rights abuses in Sudan.

On 13 August, the former Foreign Secretary issued a statement condemning the Rapid Support Force's (RSF) latest assault on El Fasher and the nearby Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), and on 14 August, the UK joined 28 partners in a Joint Donor Statement on El Fasher calling for a humanitarian pause and protection of civilians, including humanitarian operations. We stand united in urging both the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces to uphold their commitments under the Jeddah Declaration and UN Security Council Resolution 2736 (2024), and to allow immediate, unconditional humanitarian access and safe passage for civilians. As penholder at the UN Security Council, we have successfully led ten Council statements calling for an end to hostilities, most recently in a co-penned statement with African partners and Guyana pressing for protection of civilians and improved humanitarian access with respect to international law. On the UN Human Rights Council, we led the establishment and renewal of the UN Fact-Finding Mission to impartially investigate human rights violations and abuses committed by the warring parties. We also support the International Criminal Court's ongoing investigation in Sudan into alleged war crimes committed since April 2023, and the Sudan Witness Project, which gathers open-source evidence of atrocities.