Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in preparation for the International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief, what steps they will take to help protect the lives of Sikh families remaining in Afghanistan.

We continue to raise human rights, including rights of religious and ethnic minorities, in our meetings with the Taliban, including in visits of senior officials to Kabul in October 2021 and February 2022. We call on them to respect international law and uphold human rights of all Afghans. We are also encouraging them to engage in dialogue with a range of Afghans and to establish inclusive governance which better represents Afghanistan's diverse ethnic and religious groups. We continue to work closely with international partners to hold those responsible for human rights abuses to account. We supported a UN Human Rights Council resolution to establish a Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan (appointed April 2022) and worked through the UN Security Council to strengthen human rights reporting and monitoring in the new mandate for the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA).

The International Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) will bring together key members of the international FoRB community, in a programme that is themed around preventing FoRB violations and abuses and protecting and promoting FoRB for all.