Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of tabling a resolution at the UN Security Council to set up a tribunal to investigate sexual violence in the conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Foreign Secretary has made sexual violence in conflict one of her top priorities. We are working to promote justice for survivors of sexual violence, to provide support to survivors and children born of conflict related sexual violence and to prevent sexual violence from occurring. We deployed one of the UK's Team of Experts to Ethiopia to investigate how to improve health and social services for survivors, identify how access to justice can be strengthened, and scale up the UK's response to conflict-related sexual violence. We are now implementing the expert's recommendations with partners in Ethiopia.
We have supported the Joint Investigation into human rights abuses and violations during the conflict, conducted by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and we welcome the Ethiopian Government's creation of an Inter-Ministerial Taskforce to take forward recommendations of Joint Investigation report. At a special session of the Human Rights Council on 17 December 2021, we backed a resolution that created an International Commission of Experts to investigate allegations of violations in Ethiopia, including those of sexual violence. We urge all parties to engage with this Commission.
We call on all parties to the conflict to act decisively to cease all human rights violations, including the perpetration of conflict-related sexual violence.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that UK aid is able pass into Ethiopia and the Tigray State during the current conflict.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia. The humanitarian response in Tigray is now at standstill owing to the de facto blockade of the region imposed by the Government of Ethiopia since July 2021 and also due to recent military action by Tigrayan Defence Forces along the Tigray-Afar border. We are working with our international partners and humanitarian agencies so that in the event that access is granted or when there is an easing of the blockade relief can be delivered to Tigray as quickly as possible. UK funding to the crisis in the north has included support to help strengthen humanitarian logistics, to improve the security of the response and to augment civil-military coordination. The UK's assistance has helped relief agencies to deliver some aid in a highly insecure and complex operating context. In addition to Tigray the UK's support is also benefitting communities in Afar and Amhara regions directly impacted by the conflict.
The conflict is causing appalling suffering to the civilian population, with over 400,000 people in Tigray now living in famine-like conditions and over 25 million in need of urgent humanitarian assistance across the country. All parties to the conflict in the north must agree a ceasefire and allow aid to reach people in need. On 20 January, I met with Prime Minister Abiy and also spoke to State Minister Redwan, stressing the need for rapid and sustained humanitarian access and to lift the blockade on aid to northern Ethiopia. I also met UN Regional Coordinator Daniel Endres to discuss the humanitarian situation. We have been clear at the United Nations Security Council that all parties to the conflict must come to the negotiating table, and uphold their duty to protect civilians, in accordance with their international legal obligations.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to support the rollout of covid-19 vaccination programmes in developing countries.
Answered by Amanda Milling
The UK is committed to help bring the acute phase of the pandemic to an end and strongly supports the COVAX Facility as a key multilateral mechanism to deliver this. The UK is one of the largest donors to COVAX's Advance Market Commitment (AMC), committing £548 million, and will donate 100 million vaccine doses by mid-2022. This support has helped COVAX deliver over 1.14 billion vaccines globally to date to 144 participants.
There are many factors to increasing global COVID-19 vaccination coverage, including not only supply but health system capacity and community demand. UK and COVAX partners are working with countries to help health systems deliver vaccines. This includes engaging with communities and leaders to build trust, provide correct information, and encourage uptake.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to help increase the manufacturing of covid-19 vaccines in developing countries.
Answered by Amanda Milling
The UK backs the Oxford-AstraZeneca model of voluntary licensing to expand the production of affordable vaccines. With UK Government support, a global licencing deal helped see transfer of Oxford-AstraZeneca's technology to other manufacturers to establish 20 supply chains across the world, including the Serum Institute of India. Around 2.5 billion AstraZeneca doses have been distributed at-cost to more than 170 countries. Building on the success of these partnerships to expand global vaccine is a priority for the government.
We are working with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the COVAX Manufacturing Task Force, industry and other international partners to champion diversification of research and manufacturing capacity. This includes working with the new Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing to support development of its roadmap for African vaccine manufacturing. On 8 March, the UK will host the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit to raise funds to achieve CEPI's goal to develop vaccines against new health threats in 100 days and rapidly scale-up regional manufacturing for affordable global supply.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking with her international partners to encourage major multinational companies to become more sustainable.
Answered by Amanda Milling
We work closely with international partners and major multinationals to encourage them to become more sustainable. The UK government is a signatory to the 1976 OECD Declaration on International Investment and MNEs which adopted the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and has consistently supported the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We support codes of conduct, certificates and standards organisations which encourage businesses to be socially responsible, environmentally sound and help defeat modern slavery across their value chains.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations she is making to countries in which Christians and other religious minorities face persecution on upholding freedom of religion or belief.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
The UK is committed to defending freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all, and promoting respect between different religious and non-religious communities. Promoting the right to FoRB is one of the UK's longstanding human rights priorities. Bilaterally, Ministers and officials regularly raise specific cases of concern, and do not shy away from challenging publicly or in private those we believe are not meeting their obligations.
Multilaterally, we work with the UN, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Council of Europe, G7 and other fora to promote FoRB. Lord Ahmad hosted a successful Arria meeting in the margins of the Security Council in March 2021, raising awareness on persecution of religious minorities in conflict. In May this year, we secured the inclusion of language on FoRB in the G7 communique for the first time, ensuring FoRB remains firmly on the international agenda.
The UK will host an international Ministerial conference on FoRB in 2022 to energise collective efforts on this agenda.