Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support Christians at risk of religious persecution in countries with a high level of such persecution.

The Government supports the right of people of all religions – and non-religious people – to practise their beliefs in peace and safety. We are doing this in a number of ways. Through our bilateral work we lobby host governments to raise individual cases and highlight practices and laws that discriminate against people on the basis of their religion or belief. For example, the Foreign Secretary raised the rights of all Pakistani citizens, including religious minorities, during his visit to Pakistan in November 2016. Multilaterally, we work to sustain consensus support for United Nations Human Rights Council resolutions which promote freedom of religion. We also support a number of projects at grass roots level. For example, we are funding a network of human rights defenders who are working for Freedom of Religion or Belief in South Asia. In Syria and Iraq, where Christians and people of other religions have suffered such appalling persecution and violence at the hands of Daesh, our main contribution to ending the persecution of religious minorities is our support for the international effort to defeat Daesh and return the region to stability and peace.