Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 5 April (HL7332), what financial assistance they have given to human rights defenders in Iraq to improve victim support and case documentation of sexual violence committed by Daesh.

The UK has provided over £800,000 of financial support for gender equality and tackling sexual violence in conflict - £750,000 to help implement Iraq’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security and over £65,000 to the Iraqi Al-Amal Association to support their work with young people.

Furthermore, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is funding a project (£199,000) through our Human Rights and Democracy Programme which aims to improve the documentation of Sexual Violence in Erbil, Kirkuk, Sulaymaniyah, Dohuk and Zakho and to assist in the development of cases. The project is training a team of human rights defenders to document Sexual Violence and establishes a database of cases across a two year period to inform policy development in the Government of Iraq.