Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps the UK is taking in Burma to ensure that the three objectives of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative are met.

We are persistent in applying pressure to the Burmese government to live up to the commitments it made when it endorsed the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict at the London Global Summit in June 2014.

During his visit to Burma in July 2015, the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), pressed the Burmese government at senior ministerial level on the issue. He also launched the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence. We continue to raise the issue in international fora, including through UN resolutions on Burma at the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, which we co-sponsor. We also facilitated the 2015 visit of the co-founder of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, Angelina Jolie-Pitt. Along with Mr Swire, I was pleased to update selected Parliamentarians on our continuing efforts on this serious issue at the Burma briefing on Wednesday 4 May.