Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking with its international counterparts to help trace missing Yazidi women.
Answered by Amanda Milling
The UK supports the implementation of Iraq's Yazidi Survivors law of March 2021 and we engage regularly with partner governments, NGOs, survivor networks and Iraqi Government ministries to advocate for full financial provision of the law. Through UK support to the International Organisation for Migration, we provide technical and practical assistance to the Directorate of Yazidi Survivor Affairs, whose mandate includes searching for missing survivors. UK programme funding also supports psycho-social care for female survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. We have contributed £2 million to the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh (UNITAD), whose work in gathering evidence of crimes, including against minority communities, we continue to champion.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department is providing support to the Government of Mozambique to fight the Islamist insurgency in that country.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK has taken a leading role in Mozambique as co-chair of the international taskforce on the insurgency in Cabo Delgado. This taskforce is a forum for high-level dialogue and coordination between the Mozambique Government and its international partners in response to the insurgency. Bilaterally, the UK signed a Defence MOU with the Government of Mozambique in May 2019, and we continue to work in partnership to address security issues of mutual interest. UK Aid has also provided over £22 million in humanitarian support in Cabo Delgado, primarily through UN agencies, ensuring that people displaced by the crisis have access to food, water, shelter and basic health. We welcome recent progress by Mozambican defence and security forces, with support from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Rwanda, to take back areas previously under insurgent control, and will continue to work with the Government of Mozambique to build long term peace and stability.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support is being provided to Coptic Christian women in Egypt who are the victims of abduction, forced conversion and marriage.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The Government of Egypt has stated its commitment to protecting the rights of Coptic Christians and freedom of worship. We are encouraged by positive steps in recent years, including President Sisi's public commitments, to uphold the rights of minorities and freedom of worship. The UK Government is providing support to an Egyptian Government initiative to raise awareness of a number of social issues, including religious diversity and forced marriage. The Prime Minister and President Sisi have discussed the importance of protecting freedom of religion and belief, most recently during their meeting in Glasgow on 1 November. Lord Ahmad discussed freedom of religion and belief with Egypt's Ambassador to the UK in March 2022 and we will continue to raise these important issues.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to tackle religious forced (a) marriages and (b) conversions around the world.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK is committed to defending freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all, and promoting respect between different religious and non-religious communities. We work with international partners including the UN, G7, and other multilateral fora to promote FoRB. In May 2021, we ensured that FoRB was included in the G7 communiqué for the first time. This year, our Special Envoy for FoRB, Fiona Bruce MP, will Chair the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance to bolster joint international action on FoRB and on 5-6 July 2022, we will host an international Ministerial conference on FoRB. In 2020 and 2021, we continued to protect language on tackling the harmful practice of Child, Early and Forced Marriage by helping secure the adoption by consensus of relevant resolutions at the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps she is taking to help end (a) abductions, (b) forced conversions and (c) forced marriages of women and girls in Pakistan.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK is committed to defending freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all, and promoting respect between different religious and non-religious communities. We work with international partners including the UN, G7, and other multilateral fora to promote FoRB. In May 2021, we ensured that FoRB was included in the G7 communiqué for the first time. This year, our Special Envoy for FoRB, Fiona Bruce MP, will Chair the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance to bolster joint international action on FoRB and on 5-6 July 2022, we will host an international Ministerial conference on FoRB. In 2020 and 2021, we continued to protect language on tackling the harmful practice of Child, Early and Forced Marriage by helping secure the adoption by consensus of relevant resolutions at the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the treatment of women in captivity in Mozambique.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are deeply concerned by the threat from extremist groups in north-eastern Mozambique, including the impact of the conflict on women and girls who are very vulnerable in this region. The UK is committed to working with the Government of Mozambique to tackle the insurgency and its underlying drivers. We work in partnership with key stakeholders, including local civil society organisations working in the North of Mozambique, ensuring that their work draws on recent analyses and assessments, including a report by the Observatory for Rural Environment from 2021 on the impact of the conflict on women and girls. The UK is also supporting implementation of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights in Mozambique, working with government, civil society, security actors and the private sector, in order to reduce the risk of abuses and promote respect for human rights.
In addition to promoting girls' access to education in Mozambique through the UK's contribution to the Global Partnership for Education, the UK is addressing the challenges around child marriage in Mozambique through our support to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)-Unicef Global Programme to End Child Marriage, which includes work to promote child protection in Cabo Delgado.
Asked by: Marco Longhi (Conservative - Dudley North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking in response to reports that in Mozambique girls are being forced to convert to Islam or become slaves.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We are deeply concerned by the threat from extremist groups in north-eastern Mozambique, including the impact of the conflict on women and girls who are very vulnerable in this region. The UK is committed to working with the Government of Mozambique to tackle the insurgency and its underlying drivers. We work in partnership with key stakeholders, including local civil society organisations working in the North of Mozambique, ensuring that their work draws on recent analyses and assessments, including a report by the Observatory for Rural Environment from 2021 on the impact of the conflict on women and girls. The UK is also supporting implementation of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights in Mozambique, working with government, civil society, security actors and the private sector, in order to reduce the risk of abuses and promote respect for human rights.
In addition to promoting girls' access to education in Mozambique through the UK's contribution to the Global Partnership for Education, the UK is addressing the challenges around child marriage in Mozambique through our support to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)-Unicef Global Programme to End Child Marriage, which includes work to promote child protection in Cabo Delgado.