Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the International Criminal Court consideration of its jurisdiction over the displacement of the Rohingya Muslims, what consideration they have given to tabling a resolution at the UN Security Council to establish an investigative team to collect and preserve the evidence for possible prosecutions.

If the Court were to consider that it has jurisdiction over the crime of deportation in the context of the situation in Bangladesh, it would be for the appropriate organs of the Court to consider how to progress any investigation in line with the provisions of the Rome Statute.

The UK co-sponsored the UN Human Rights Council resolution which set up a UN Fact Finding Mission (FFM) on human rights abuses in Burma, and subsequent resolutions that gave it the mandate and resources to collect, preserve and share evidence. Following the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations, the Government is discussing with international partners how to support evidence-collecting efforts, especially in relation to sexual violence

Pressure from the UN Security Council on accountability helped persuade Burma to announce plans for a Commission of Inquiry into violence in Rakhine State. We continue to emphasise that we need an accountability mechanism which is credible, transparent and impartial, and which can hold to account the perpetrators of atrocities.