Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps is his Department taking to improve the effectiveness of the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is providing £1.3 million this financial year to the UN's Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) to facilitate commercial shipping and assure the Coalition that weapons are not coming into Yemen on large commercial ships docking at the Red Sea ports. We have also deployed UK maritime experts to Djibouti to further boost the inspections process, and increase the proportion of ships physically inspected almost ten-fold (from 8 per cent to 77 per cent).
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that any repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar includes (a) guarantees on the physical and legal safety of returnees and (b) UNHCR supervision.
Answered by Mark Field
The Foreign Secretary raised the issue of refugee returns when he met Burmese State Counsellor Aung Sun Suu Kyi on 12 February. The UK has been clear Rohingya refugees must be allowed to return to their homes in Rakhine voluntarily, in safety and with dignity. The UK secured the support of the UN Security Council for these requirements in its Presidential Statement of 6 November. The UK Government shares UNHCR's assessment that conditions in Rakhine are not currently in place to enable returns in line with these standards, and has called on the Burmese authorities to allow UNHCR to play a full role in the returns process.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in Russia on the rights of LGBT people in (a) Chechnya and (b) Russia and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alan Duncan
I refer the Hon. Member to my answer of 17 November 2017 (PQ 111577).
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to promote LGBT rights overseas.
Answered by Mark Field
The Government firmly believes that the chance to live with dignity, free from violence or discrimination, should not depend on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. We are committed to a campaigning approach to promote and protect LGBT rights. Ministers and senior officials regularly raise LGBT equality with their counterparts overseas, and over £1.6 million has been committed in 2016-2018 from the Magna Carta Fund for Human Rights and Democracy for projects promoting and protecting the rights of LGBT people globally.