Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on whether the Colombian government has recently taken steps to ensure that human rights activists in that country are given full legal protection and are not arrested as a result of their work.

I regularly receive reports on the human rights situation in Colombia, most recently the update from the Colombian non-governmental organisation, Somos Defensores (“We are defenders”) on 18 August. This gives figures on the situation for human rights defenders in the first half of 2015 and raises concerns regarding the protection of human rights activists. The Colombian government continues to take steps to address human rights issues, most recently reactivating its “Table of Guarantees”, an initiative led by the Ministry of Interior to provide a high level dialogue with civil society and human rights organisations. Given our commitment to human rights in the country, our Embassy in Bogotá was recently invited to join as an observer. We will continue to raise issues such as the legal treatment of human rights activists in this, and other, fora.