Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of (1) rape, and (2) the sterilisation, of Tigrayan women, in Tigray; and what evidence, if any, they have collected of such crimes.

We are appalled at the prevalence of sexual and gender-based violence in Tigray. The Foreign Secretary has made sexual violence in conflict one of her top priorities. We are working to promote justice for survivors of sexual violence, to provide support to survivors and children born of conflict related sexual violence and to prevent sexual violence from occurring. We deployed one of the UK's Team of Experts to Ethiopia to investigate how to improve health and social services for survivors, identify how access to justice can be strengthened, and scale up the UK's response to conflict-related sexual violence. We are now implementing the expert's recommendations with partners in Ethiopia.

We have supported the Joint Investigation into human rights abuses and violations during the conflict, conducted by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and we welcome the Ethiopian Government's creation of an Inter-Ministerial Taskforce to take forward recommendations of Joint Investigation report. At a special session of the Human Rights Council on 17 December 2021, we backed a resolution that created an International Commission of Experts to investigate allegations of violations in Ethiopia, including those of sexual violence. We urge all parties to engage with this Commission.

We call on all parties to the conflict to act decisively to cease all human rights violations, including the perpetration of conflict-related sexual violence.