Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Burmese counterparts on ratification of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.

We have had a number of discussions with the Burmese government on the importance of Burma ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). I personally raised the importance of adhering to international human rights standards and encouraged the ratification of key human rights treaties with Burma’s Deputy Foreign Minister when we met in June. At the request of the Burmese government the British Embassy in Rangoon recently funded an experts’ visit to Burma to identify steps that would need to be taken and issues that would need to be considered to ratify the ICCPR.