Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK embassies have reported progress on the implementation of the Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders.

​The Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders, updated and issued to the diplomatic network in 2017, are a guide to UK Embassies and High Commissions to steer them in their work and contact with Human Rights Defenders. It is for individual Embassies and High Commissions to determine how they use the Guidelines depending on the local context they are working in. Not all missions will use the Guidelines in the same way and many were already doing much of the work suggested. We engage with Human Rights Defenders on a range of topics and the benefits the Guidelines have delivered will be embedded in reports on this work, rather than being reported separately.