Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the risks to human rights defenders in Colombia.

The situation facing human rights defenders in Colombia is concerning: over the past year they have faced increasing levels of threats, intimidation and killings. We regularly express our concern over this issue to the Colombian government. On 9 May the Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the UN, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon met with Colombian High Counsellor for Stabilisation, Emilio Archila, and directly raised the issue. Our Embassy in Bogotá funds human rights programmes that help human rights defenders, and we work closely with civil society groups to bring individual cases to the Colombian government’s attention.