Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his estimate is of the number of human rights activists and community leaders killed in Colombia during the first eight months of 2015.

The latest report from the NGO coalition ‘Somos Defensores’ recorded 51 murders of human rights defenders in the first nine months of 2015, compared to 55 for the whole of 2014 which indicates a worrying upward trend. Despite recent significant developments on the peace process we remain concerned by this increase in violence and threats against human rights defenders there. I again raised the issue of human rights with the Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister, Patti Londono, on 29 September. Officials in London met British NGOs on 9 November, to understand their concerns in greater detail.