Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are engaged in or supporting any action to help protect women at risk of sexual violence as a result of the ongoing conflict in South Sudan.

South Sudan has endorsed the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict and as an endorsing country participated in the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in London in June. We continue to press the Government of South Sudan to act on the commitments it has made to design and implement a national action plan against sexual violence.

The UK remains closely engaged with the South Sudan non-government organisation (NGO) Forum and associated NGOs to help protect women and girls from sexual violence. Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers have stressed to the South Sudanese government the need for a comprehensive investigation into human rights abuses in South Sudan, including cases of sexual violence. At this year’s UN General Assembly in New York in September, the Minister for Africa, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (Mr Duddridge), and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, co-hosted an event to mark a year since the launch of the Declaration, at which he encouraged all 155 member states who have now endorsed the Declaration to deliver on the practical and political commitments they have made to end the use of rape and sexual violence as a tactic of war.