Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 quarantine in Colombia on the safety and security of human rights defenders in that country; and if he will make a statement.

The UK remains concerned about the persistent level of violence towards human rights defenders in Colombia and we have noted indications that this may have worsened during the COVID-19 lockdown. We regularly raise this issue, as well as specific cases of concern, with the Colombian Government and in multilateral fora. We have also called on the Colombian Government to prioritise tackling and preventing this violence. Most recently, our Permanent Representative to the UN expressed our deep concern at the UN Security Council on 14 July. I also raised the issue during a phone call with Colombian Foreign Minister Claudia Blum on 2 June.

Colombia is a UK Government "Human Rights Priority Country" and as such our Embassy in Bogota has provided significant programming to help at-risk human rights defenders. We will continue to raise our concerns with the relevant state actors in Colombia.