Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the fairness of the trial relating to members and affiliates of the Centre for Training and Human Development in Sudan.

We continue to raise our concerns about the trial of members of the human rights NGO TRACKs directly with the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of our ongoing human rights dialogue, most recently during the visit of the Sudanese Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs on 10 October. I also made our wider human rights concerns clear to the Sudanese delegation during the same visit.

In coordination with our international partners we have ensured that there is a diplomatic presence at each stage of the trial of the members and affiliates of the Centre for Training and Human Development. Officials from our Embassy last attended on 30 August, and US officials attended the most recent hearing on 22 November.