Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the intervention by the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg at the United Nations Human Rights Council on 22 March regarding their concern over Bahraini human rights defenders, what were the most recent dates upon which they raised these cases with their counterparts in Bahrain.

Bahrain is a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office human rights priority country. Officials and ministers regularly discuss human rights issues and individual cases with senior members of the Government of Bahrain, as well as with the independent human rights oversight bodies. My [Minister of State for South and Central Asia, UN and the Commonwealth, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad] own visit to Bahrain from 13-14 February was such an opportunity.