Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what diplomatic steps he has taken to help coordinate an international response to the potential state misuse of emergency powers during the covid-19 pandemic.

The UK is aware of and concerned by reports of measures taken by some countries in response to the Coronavirus outbreak that may unduly restrict human rights or have a disproportionate impact on vulnerable or marginalised groups. All States must ensure they respect their human rights obligations in responding to Coronavirus.

Through our international engagement, we have made clear that any actions taken which may restrict certain human rights, for example freedom of assembly or association, must be lawful, non-discriminatory, targeted, time-limited, and subject to regular review to ensure they remain strictly necessary as a response to Coronavirus. The Foreign Secretary issued a statement with his French, German and Dutch counterparts to mark World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, in which he emphasised the need to "oppose all attempts by any state to use the pandemic to adopt restrictions on press freedom, silence debate, abuse journalists or spread information". On 20 May, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State with responsibility for Human Rights, discussed with Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the critical importance of working together to ensure everyone's human rights are protected in responding to COVID-19, and welcomed plans for the Human Rights Council to resume in June.

Our Ambassadors to multilateral institutions in New York, Geneva, Strasbourg and Vienna have all raised the importance of human rights in States' response to Coronavirus. We also support the call the UN Secretary-General made when launching his policy brief on COVID-19 and human rights on 22 April that human rights must be at the front and centre of the Coronavirus response and recovery. The UK Government remains committed to standing up for human rights and supports all efforts by the UN to minimise long-term damage to global economies, societies, politics and freedoms.