Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

The UK has been at the forefront of the international response to the coup, including through targeted sanctions on the military's economic interests. On 29 April, the UK laid new sanctions regulations, Myanmar (Sanctions) Regulations 2021, to allow us to better target the military and its interests. Since the start of the coup we have sanctioned nine individuals and six entities for their involvement in serious human rights violations and support to the junta.

We cannot speculate on future designations, however, we are working with partners to identify a range of further targets. The UK is committed to targeted sanctions which directly impact the military without harming the wider population. This will be a key consideration in any future designations.

The United Kingdom strongly opposes the death penalty in all countries and in all circumstances, as a matter of principle. This is especially the case for juveniles. This is in line with the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Arab Charter on Human Rights. We continue to raise human rights concerns, including the death penalty, with the Egyptian authorities, both privately and in forums such as the UN Human Rights Council. Following recent cases the Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa made clear to the Egyptian Government, at a senior level, our serious concern about the use of the death penalty.

As the Foreign Secretary made clear in his public statement on 14 July, this latest assault against human rights organisations and independent media by Lukashenko's regime is a further attempt to crush freedom and stifle debate in Belarus. The Government has called for those detained to be released immediately, along with the hundreds of other people detained on political grounds. The Government has raised our concerns directly to the Belarusian authorities, most recently in the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna on 15 July. The UK stands with the people of Belarus and we will continue to work with our partners to hold those responsible for these human rights abuses to account.

We continue to call on the Nigerian Government to investigate allegations of human rights violations and hold those responsible to account, most recently during the Minister for Africa's visit to Nigeria in April. FCDO staff come from a range of backgrounds and religious identities, and all are encouraged to develop further understanding of religion and its role within society, supported by training from the FCDO's International Academy.

The UK is committed to supporting women and girls in Mali. We are providing funding for women-led peacebuilding in Northern Mali, working with women delegates to Mali's Peace Agreement Monitoring Committee. In the most recent renewal of MINUSMA's mandate, we secured strong benchmarks on the meaningful participation of women in the peace process and wider political processes. We are also providing programmatic support to allow crisis-affected children (at least 50% girls) in Mali to continue their education, and have invested to support women's sexual and reproductive health. The UK Embassy in Mali is in regular contact with civil society groups that support women's and girls' rights, including in the lead up to a joint UK-France co-hosted event at the UN in May this year. This event provided a platform for women delegates of Mali's Peace Agreement Monitoring Committee and local women's rights organisation, to share their experiences and understanding of the challenges and opportunities of increasing women's meaningful participation in stabilisation, mediation and conflict resolution processes.

The Global Human Rights sanctions regime gives the UK a powerful tool to hold to account those involved in serious human rights violations or abuses. Since it was established on 6 July 2020, we have designated 72 individuals and 6 entities under this sanctions regime. The full UK Sanctions List is available on GOV.UK website (www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uk-sanctions-list), which provides details of those individuals and entities designated under sanctions regulations made under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act. We will continue to consider targets globally, guided by the objectives of the Global Human Rights sanctions regime and the evidence.

It is vital to learn lessons from a global health emergency, particularly one as complex and far-reaching as COVID-19, so that we can be better prepared for future pandemics. We need to take this moment to deliver concrete improvements that allow the international system to respond better in the future. The findings and bold recommendations of the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response, as well as the other reviews into this pandemic, will play an important role in this process. We are carefully considering these recommendations as we approach key discussions, including at the G20, the United Nations General Assembly, and the World Health Assembly Special Session later this year.

As a critical partner in the global vaccination effort, the UK regularly makes representations on this agenda with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Gavi, which operates as the secretariat of COVAX.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the UK has championed the importance of rapid, equitable access to safe and effective vaccines. This requires a truly global effort, and no one country or pharmaceutical company will be able to do this alone.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the UK has championed the importance of rapid, equitable access to safe and effective vaccines. We are among the largest donors to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), committing £548 million. Through match-funding, this leveraged $1 billion from other donors in 2020. This support to COVAX has been critical to its distribution of over 136 million COVID-19 vaccines to over 136 countries and economies, with its aim to provide up to 1.8 billion doses to low and middle-income countries by early 2022. The UK has also committed to sharing 100 million vaccine doses by June 2022, 80 per cent of which will go to COVAX to provide further support for countries in need.

The UK's financial commitment to COVAX contributes to the whole COVAX portfolio, which currently consists of 11 COVID-19 vaccines. Exact numbers of different vaccines supplied to countries will depend on timing of availability, country demand and preferences, overall portfolio mix, and ongoing assessment and guidance from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on vaccine effectiveness as the evidence base for different vaccines continues to evolve. All vaccines disbursed by COVAX must pass robust WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) or full pre-qualification assessment.

All FCDO travel advice pages remain under constant review to ensure they reflect the latest threat assessment to British nationals and include up-to-date information and advice.

UK peacebuilding project work contains cross-border elements. Our Embassy in Tel Aviv and Consulate-General in Jerusalem work closely with all sectors of society, including ultra-Orthodox communities, the National Religious, Israeli Arabs and Palestinian communities affected by the conflict, to encourage support for and progress towards peace.

The accounts in the Amnesty International report are concerning. We welcome the fact that Frontex has conducted an internal investigation into the allegations, and the European Parliament has established a permanent standing committee in order to scrutinise Frontex activity in the Aegean. The UK co-operates closely with our European partners to manage migration and strengthen our collective borders. We are committed to upholding international law and international human rights standards and to avoiding any actions that may endanger human life.

The UK remains active and committed in this field. The UK was a penholder on UN Security Council Resolution 2347, which treats protection of cultural heritage as an issue of key importance to international peace with implications for national security. In Iraq and Syria, UK support for cultural heritage protection has ranged from providing psycho-social support to Yazidi women trafficked by Daesh, to addressing illegal antiquities trafficking through the flagship Cultural Protection Fund. The UK government is considering further work in both Iraq and Syria through the next round of the Cultural Protection Fund.

The UK is firmly committed to supporting the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and Syria who have suffered as a result of conflict and been persecuted, particularly by Daesh. We have contributed £28 million to the UNDP Funding Facility for Stabilisation (FFS), which is helping to enable the return of internally displaced persons, including minorities, to areas liberated from Daesh by restoring vital infrastructure and basic services.

Defending and promoting human rights, including freedom of religion or belief, has been a long-standing priority for the UK Government. The UK believes that no one should be excluded from education because of their religion or belief. Discrimination damages not only societies, but also holds back economies.

Religious or ethnic discrimination can force families to flee their homes, with refugees and displaced children now constituting the largest group of those out of school, and their number increasing. For this reason, the UK is the founding and leading donor to Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies. The UK is providing £90 million of funding to ECW from 2019 to 2023. This investment is supporting ECW to expand its operations to more countries, respond to COVID-19, and will support up to 600,000 children living through conflict, and in areas of protracted crises, access education. For example, ECW's support includes the provision of basic education for 88,000 Rohingya children who are now living in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

We condemn all attacks on places of worship including the reported attack in Ungwan Gaida, Kaduna State. We regularly raise concerns about attacks and broader insecurity with the Nigerian Government, including during the Minister for Africa's visit to Nigeria in April.

The accounts in the report are concerning and illustrate the difficulties presented by irregular migration. As the report notes, Greece has denied using any illegal practices, while Frontex has conducted an internal investigation into the allegations, and the European Parliament has established a permanent standing committee in order to scrutinise Frontex activity in the Aegean. HMA Athens has raised this issue with Greek Migration Minister Mitarakis and we will continue to urge all parties to uphold international law and international human rights standards, and to avoid any actions that may endanger human life. More broadly, the UK is committed to engaging with European and other partners on a 'whole of route' approach to tackling the challenges of, and risks posed by, irregular migration.

We provide capacity building support, training and technical assistance to state governments across Nigeria to help them manage resources more transparently and to be more responsive to citizen needs. We work with civil society on human rights and we will continue to make clear to the Nigerian authorities at the highest levels the importance of protecting human rights for all.

We are aware of discussions between our close partners, Turkey and the EU, on the funding of border controls at Turkey's eastern border. We would expect any new border controls to comply with international law with respect to the protection of refugees.

Sanctions are one response among a number of diplomatic tools we can deploy around the world as part of a broader political strategy in order to change or send a political signal regarding particular behaviours. The Global Human Rights Sanctions regime gives the UK a powerful tool to hold to account those involved in serious human rights violations or abuses. We will continue to consider targets globally, guided by the objectives of the human rights sanctions regime and the evidence. However, it is not appropriate to speculate on who may be designated in the future, as to do so could reduce their impact.

The UK government's aim for security sector reform in Sri Lanka is to encourage the development of a modern, accountable and human rights compliant military, and support the development of a police service that is gender sensitive and respects human rights. Promoting adherence to international humanitarian law and human rights compliance is integral to our engagement.

All UK assistance, including training and defence engagement, is subject to robust Overseas Security and Justice Assistance (OSJA) assessments that analyse the potential human rights, international humanitarian law, political and reputational risks of any proposed assistance to ensure that it supports our values and is consistent with our domestic and international human rights obligations. Annual review summaries of our Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) programmes can be found online at: https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/projects/GB-GOV-3-CSSF-09-000003/documents

We look forward to engaging with a diverse range of partners and stakeholders, including civil society, on the International Development Strategy over the coming months. Women's rights organisations are critical to achieving lasting transformation in women's and girls' rights, and the Integrated Review specifically commits FCDO to work closely with them to tackle the violence and discrimination that hold women back.

The UK government shares the objective of increasing understanding and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. UK officials remain in close contact with the US Government regarding the International Fund. The US is at a very early planning stage, and once more information is available, we will consider options for collaboration.

We are aware of the assessments made in the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) for 2020. We continue to stress the importance of the Israeli and Palestinian security forces providing appropriate protection to the civilian population, in particular the need to protect children, and urge restraint in the use of live fire. We remain concerned by the number of Palestinians, including children, killed and injured in the West Bank and Gaza.

Coping with climate change is a challenge that faces us all. The poor in developing countries are likely to be hit first and hardest. Our International Climate Finance (ICF) reaches those most in need and we are committed to doubling our ICF to £11.6bn over the next five years. In our adaptation programming we prioritise locally-led action with a strong grounding in the local context and needs, targeting marginalised groups.

We do not need to change climate funding mechanisms to ensure that, through quality education, more girls are empowered and equipped as agents of change. Voluntary family planning programmes empower women and girls to choose whether and when to have children - this in turn supports the health, prosperity and resilience of their communities and countries.

We are clear that all Cubans should have the right to protest peacefully. The UK government has called for calm and restraint, and the full respect of all Cubans' human rights. Detention should not be used as a tool to restrict freedom of expression, assembly, and religion. We have raised our concerns directly with the Cuban government, and called for the authorities to release information on detained citizens, including their whereabouts. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in coordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), conducts assessments of the likely scale of migration and internal displacement due to the situation in Afghanistan. They are currently preparing revised estimates to reflect the deteriorating situation and we will continue to work with OCHA, UNHCR, IOM and other donors and neighbouring countries to respond.

The UK closed the British Embassy in Damascus in 2012 and has no plans to re-open it. It is up to each sovereign state to make its own decisions on its representation in Syria, but we believe the Assad regime has lost its legitimacy due to its atrocities against the Syrian people and must now engage seriously with the UN political process.

We are aware that the Turkish government regards the Muslim Brotherhood as a political movement, not a terrorist organisation; and that Muslim Brotherhood figures have lived in Turkey, and associated media outlets have operated there, for many years. We continue to take concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood seriously. Turkey takes the fight against all forms of terrorism, including Daesh and ISIS, extremely seriously and we work in close cooperation on those issues bilaterally and in international fora such as the Counter Daesh coalition.

The Government works closely with all our friends in the Gulf to strengthen our shared security and prosperity interests, including through dialogue to promote regional stability, initiatives to tackle illicit finance and terrorism, and defence cooperation.

Britain has strong bilateral trading relationships with the Gulf and it is already one of our largest export destinations, with total trade of over £30 billion in 2020. We are committed to broadening and deepening our shared economic interests further, including through government-to-government trade dialogues, and also within specific sectors following conclusion of the UK-GCC Joint Trade and Investment Review.

We are deeply concerned by the appalling violence inflicted on the people of Myanmar by the Security Forces, and the arbitrary detention of civilians, including healthcare workers. With our G7 partners on 5 May, we called on the military junta to respect the safety of medical facilities and staff and to release all those arbitrarily detained.

Myanmar nationals who are currently in the UK can access the UK's strong immigration package according to their personal circumstances. Where there are compelling compassionate factors, individuals can apply for Leave Outside the Immigration Rules. While asylum claims cannot be made from abroad, all asylum claims made in the UK are considered on a case-by-case basis on their individual merits.

British Embassy officials in Kabul regularly meet with representatives from religious minority groups to hear their concerns. We continue to stress that the human rights of all Afghans should be protected. We also continue to make public condemnations about targeted killings and violence against minorities, calling for transparent investigations. The UK is committed to defending freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all, and promoting respect between different religious and non-religious communities around the world. Only a negotiated and inclusive settlement will bring sustainable peace to Afghanistan. We continue to make clear to all sides that any political settlement must protect the progress made in the country, including protection for women and minority groups.

The UK has a proud record of providing protection for people who need it, in accordance with our obligations under the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights. However, there is no provision within our Immigration Rules for someone to be allowed to travel to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge. Those who need international protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach - that is the fastest route to safety.

We are seeking clarification from the Nigerian government about the circumstances of the arrest and detention of Nnamdi Kanu. The UK has requested consular access to Mr Kanu from the Nigerian government, and we stand ready to provide consular assistance.

We are seeking clarification from the Nigerian government about the circumstances of the arrest and detention of Nnamdi Kanu. The UK has requested consular access to Mr Kanu from the Nigerian government, and we stand ready to provide consular assistance.

We are working closely with Portuguese partners, including through the British Embassy in Lisbon, to ensure all travel restrictions are communicated to UK nationals, including on the recognition of vaccine status. As of 28 June 2021, travellers from the UK to Portugal who are fully vaccinated with a vaccine authorised by the European Medicines Agency do not need to quarantine upon arrival. We are working with the Portuguese to confirm how UK travellers demonstrate vaccine status. The Autonomous Region of Madeira accepts the proofs of vaccination status issued for residents in the UK who were vaccinated under the UK's domestic programme. Full information is available on our FCDO Travel Advice pages, which we update regularly.

During the recent conflict, the UK urged the parties to engage with mediators. We fully supported Egyptian, Qatari and UN efforts towards a ceasefire, working closely with the US. As the Prime Minister has made clear, leaders in the region must now work to find a durable solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict that prevents terrorism, ends the cycle of violence, and delivers a sustainable and just peace based on a two state solution.

The UK has committed £87 million to Yemen for 2021/22 which will address food insecurity and support nutrition. This includes feeding 240,000 of the most vulnerable Yemenis every month and supporting 1.5 million of the most vulnerable households with additional cash assistance to allow them to buy food and basic supplies and support 400 health centres. Globally the UK has committed £548 million to COVAX, which has allocated 2.3 million vaccines to Yemen. We also continue to work with donors, the UN and NGOs to lobby the parties to lift access restrictions and ensure humanitarian aid reaches those who most need it in Yemen.

The UK has consistently urged for an end to the conflict in Tigray. There can be no military solution. We continue to urge all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and respect international humanitarian law. We would not normally comment on defence cooperation between two sovereign states.

The United Kingdom strongly opposes the death penalty in all countries and in all circumstances, as a matter of principle. The Saudi authorities are aware of the UK Government's strong position on such cases. We reiterated our opposition to the death penalty in Saudi Arabia in a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council on 15 September 2020. On 24 May 2021, during my visit to Saudi Arabia, I discussed the death penalty, including those charged with conducting crimes as minors, with the President of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, Dr Awwad Alawwad. The British Embassy Riyadh raised our concerns regarding Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish with the Saudi authorities ahead of, and following, his execution.

The UK is in contact with our French partners on their planned changes to operations in the Sahel. We have had assurances that France will retain the critical support functions such as force protection, medical and logistical support, which allow the UK to effectively contribute to operations in the Sahel. We are building peace and stability in the Sahel, Nigeria and wider Lake Chad Basin. Our humanitarian assistance is supporting those most affected by conflict in the region.

Following the ceasefire announcement, the Foreign Secretary visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories on 25 and 26 May for talks with senior leaders. The Foreign Secretary met former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and reiterated the UK's firm commitment to the two-state solution. We have a regular dialogue with the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The Foreign Secretary and Ministers have also engaged regional partners, including with Egypt, Jordan and Turkey. The Foreign Secretary made it clear that the UK would continue to work with the parties, and other actors, to encourage a durable ceasefire and to urge them to address the drivers of conflict.

The UK and US regularly discuss our perspectives on Latin America, including Cuba. We agree with the US that the protestors' concerns need to be heard, and their right to protest peacefully needs to respected. Like the US, we have been clear in calling for calm and restraint. We will continue to discuss Cuba with the US and other partners, including our opposition to the US embargo, which we consider to be counterproductive.

We repeatedly call on Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and have a regular dialogue with Israel on legal issues relating to the occupation, including the treatment of Palestinian children. The UK continues to engage with the Israeli Government on human rights issues in the context of the occupation and continue to stress the importance of the Israeli security forces providing appropriate protection to the Palestinian civilian population, in particular the need to protect children.

The UK opposes Israel's demolitions of Palestinian schools and we continue to urge Israel to cease such policies. The Foreign Secretary raised ongoing evictions, demolitions and settlement activity with the Israeli Authorities during his visit to the region on 26 May. The UK is clear that in all but the most exceptional of circumstances, demolitions are contrary to International Humanitarian Law.