Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the results of UK Government support for Syrian civil society.

Although the Assad regime continues to impede a UN-led political process for Syria, we assess that our support to civil society has produced positive results. Recent outreach has included support to the NGO Search for Common Ground, contributing £800,000 to capacity-building for civil society actors across Syria, focused on local needs. We supported the International Commission on Missing Persons' work with Syrian civil society, which contributed to data collection on missing persons and provision of assistance to the families of the missing. On gender related issues, since 2018, we have contributed £2 million to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and together we have strengthened women's participation in decision-making, and gender sensitive transitional justice.

The UK government engages widely with Syrian civil society to promote their voices and inform our policy on the Syria crisis. On 15 March I hosted an event at the 46th Human Rights Council to discuss accountability for human rights abuses in Syria. The next day I attended a joint Syria Relief UK and Syrian British Council event, developing policy for alleviating the crisis. We believe civil society, women and minorities must play a role in reaching a lasting settlement in Syria.