Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the UK Government is taking to support the protection of human rights of Tamil communities in Sri Lanka.

The UK has called on the Government of Sri Lanka to make progress on human rights issues for all communities in Sri Lanka. The UK continues to encourage and support Sri Lanka to deliver the commitments it made to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) through Resolutions 30/1, 34/1 and 40/1. A national process initiated by the Government of Sri Lanka and supported by all communities offers the best route to achieve these goals. We continue to look to Sri Lanka to deliver in full the commitments it has made to the UNHRC.

We continue to raise human rights issues in our engagement with the Government of Sri Lanka. During his recent visit to Sri Lanka on 2-3 October, Minister of State for the Commonwealth, UN and South Asia Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon met with faith and political leaders including the leader of the Tamil National Alliance R Sampanthan. He reinforced to Foreign Minister Marapana the importance of Sri Lanka delivering fully on its commitments to the UNHRC.

The UK remains committed to supporting peacebuilding, human rights and development in Sri Lanka for all its communities. We are providing funding through the Conflict, Stability and Security fund to support police reform and training, reconciliation, peace building and demining in the north of the country.