Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help increase capacity building within the African Union to tackle human rights violations.

The UK is committed to supporting the African Union's capacity to tackle human rights violations across Africa. This includes support to African Union-led efforts on conflict resolution, governance and security, which help to reduce the factors that often underpin human rights abuses. The UK is a leading supporter of the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia, their continued mediation efforts in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan and their efforts to call for a return to democracy in countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.