Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with EU counterparts on reports of persecution of LGBTQ people in Chechnya.

​In addition to the statement issued by my Noble Friend, the Minister of State, The Baroness Anelay of St Johns, officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have worked with EU partners to coordinate an EU statement and statements on behalf of the EU in the OSCE and the Council of Europe. The EU is as one on the serious nature of this issue. We will look to raise the continued persecution of the LGBT community in Russia at the next session of the UN Human Rights Council in June.