Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will help secure access to British Southern Cameroons territory for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

I met the Cameroonian Commonwealth Minister Mbayu and the then Foreign Secretary met Prime Minister Yang at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in April. We both pressed for action to resolve the ongoing dispute in the Anglophone regions and for adherence to core Commonwealth values and principles, including tolerance, respect and understanding.

The UK ensured that the European Union Statement at the Human Rights Council meeting, in Geneva in June, included a call for access to the Anglophone regions of Cameroon for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR). We also welcomed the statement by the UNHCHR, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, at that meeting, in which he called for the Cameroonian authorities swiftly to approve a mission by his Office to all parts of the country. We will continue to work with international partners and through Ministerial engagement and our High Commission in Yaoundé to urge the Cameroonians to allow UNHCHR unhindered access.