Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support persecuted Christians in Myanmar.

The UK is committed to defending freedom of religion of belief for all communities in Myanmar. We continue to support religious minorities, including Christians, and raise our concerns over discrimination against them in international fora. In April, we co-sponsored a UN Human Rights Council resolution on Myanmar which stressed the need to address the root causes of human rights violations and abuses against ethnic and religious minority groups. We are providing support to the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and established the Myanmar Witness programme to collect evidence of human rights violations, including identity-based violence.