Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of US withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council on human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; and if he will make a statement.

The UK is a strong supporter of the Human Rights Council. We were proud to be re-elected as members last year. It is in all our interests to strengthen the rules-based international system. But the Council’s current approach of a hugely disproportionate focus on Israel does not support human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, nor further the goal of a two-state solution. US engagement in the Human Rights Council is a matter for the US Government and we would not issue a statement regarding it.