Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of defining Chile as a human rights priority country.

The UK Government is concerned about events that have occurred in Chile. Our Ambassador in Chile has expressed our concerns about the violence witnessed during protests in 2019 and about reports of human rights abuses to the Chilean Government. We welcome the Chilean Government's recognition that there have been human rights abuses and their assurances, in public and to our Ambassador, that allegations of human rights abuses will be investigated fully, and that perpetrators will be prosecuted. We continue to monitor the human rights situation in Chile closely.