Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the contribution of 13 May 2014, Official Report, column 203WH, what steps he is taking to support human rights in Burundi.

We monitor human rights in Burundi closely. When I visited Burundi in April, I lobbied President Nkurunziza about the importance of respecting human and democratic rights. On 29th May I tweeted our concern about the detention of Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, Burundi's most active human rights defender. My officials are following this case closely. In recent years, my officials at the High Commission in Kigali have funded human rights protection projects in Burundi and specifically, the Burundian Independent Commission of Human Rights. In 2013, officials attended and contributed to Burundi's Universal Periodic Review of its human rights progress.