Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) what practical steps they are taking, and (2) what resources they are making available, to give effect to the UN doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect in response to reports of identity-based violence in Kachin; and how they are addressing any gaps in their approaches to predicting, preventing and responding to mass atrocities; to developing a cross-departmental strategy on atrocity prevention; and the integration of mass atrocity prevention into existing policy commitments and decision-making processes.

The Foreign Secretary spoke to Burma's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on 11 June and called for the Burmese military to exercise restraint and allow humanitarian access to those affected by recent fighting in Kachin. The UK's cross-Government approach to atrocity prevention includes the prediction and prevention of identity-based mass violence, alongside other forms of violence and instability, and is set within the Government's wider work on conflict prevention. Our early warning systems, such as our annual internal report on Countries at Risk of Instability, are complemented by shorter-term horizon-scanning tools, which assist policymakers in prioritising and directing Government engagement and activity on atrocity prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.