Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure that his Department promotes the right to peaceful protest to the international community.

Respect for human rights and democratic freedoms underpins the UK's foreign policy. The UK supports freedom of expression, including the right to peaceful protest. UK Ministers and officials have regular and frank discussions about the full range of human rights concerns, wherever they occur, and we use our bilateral relationships, our development programmes, and our presence in multilateral institutions to drive progress.

In discussions with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ministers and officials raise the most pressing human rights issues of the day. We also set out concerns on a wide range of countries at every session of the Human Rights Council. The UK co-sponsored a resolution on Peaceful Protests at the 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council. When the Minister of State for Human Rights, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, raised Hong Kong in the UK's national statement at the UN Human Rights Council on 25 September, he stated that the Joint Declaration, a legally binding treaty, set out that Hong Kong was guaranteed a high degree of autonomy and rights and freedoms, including that, of assembly, and of association.