Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of potential crimes against humanity, including mass sexual violence, in Myanmar.

​We remain deeply concerned about human rights violations in Burma. I raised our concerns when I met the Burmese Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, U Kyaw Tin, on 27 February at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. During his visit to Burma in January, the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), also raised similar concerns with State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as well as military-appointed government ministers. When the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my noble Friend, the Rt Hon. Baroness Anelay of St Johns visited Burma last November, she specifically raised the issue of sexual violence with the Burmese Minister of Defence, where she pressed him to handle allegations of sexual violence against women in a thorough and transparent manner.

The question of whether any crimes under international law have occurred in Burma is a matter for judicial decision, rather than for governments to determine. Our objective remains to end all violations of human rights in Burma, including conflict-related sexual violence.