Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the press release by the UN entitled China: UN experts alarmed by separation of 1 million Tibetan children from families and forced assimilation at residential schools, published on 6 February 2023; whether he has had discussions with his Chinese counterpart in China on these findings; and if he will make a statement

We are aware of reports that Tibetan parents are being coerced into sending their children to boarding schools in Tibet with no access to traditional Tibetan learning. We continue to raise the situation in Tibet with the Chinese authorities: at last month's UN Human Rights Council (HRC) we made a statement urging China to reverse its ongoing, serious, and systematic human rights violations in Tibet, and at the March UN HRC we raised the issue of boarding schools in our Item 4 statement. We also coordinate with partners to draw international attention to the human rights situation in Tibet. In April 2023, a G7 Foreign Ministers Communiqué noted that all G7 countries continue to raise concerns with China on human rights violations, including on Tibet. In June 2022, a UK-led lobbying effort helped to secure the support of 46 other countries for a joint statement at the HRC.