Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of findings published on 6 February by Human Rights Watch that Burmese government forces committed rape and other sexual violence against ethnic Rohingya women and girls during security operations in northern Rakhine State in 2016.

We are deeply concerned by these reports. I visited Burma in November 2016 in my capacity as the Prime Minister's Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict. In that capacity, I pressed the Burmese Minister of Defence on the importance of the army handling allegations of sexual violence against women in a thorough and transparent manner. I also lobbied other senior Ministers for a full and independent investigation into all reports of human rights violations. During my visit, I also heard direct from Rohingya leaders about the plight facing their community in Rakhine State and I hosted a workshop in which I met survivors of sexual violence along with practitioners engaged in efforts to prevent conflict-related sexual violence.