Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the report for the Inter-Parliamentary Union entitled PALESTINE: the trial of Mr. Marwan Barghouti, published on 3 October 2003.

The UK continues to reiterate calls for Israel to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) unfettered and immediate access to detention facilities and continue to raise this with the Israeli government as a priority. The UK reaffirms our support for the ICRC as the only humanitarian actor with the experience, capability, independence and mandate to carry out their important responsibilities. We believe it is critical that the ICRC is given regular access to detainees to deliver on their independent visiting role, as enshrined within the 1949 Geneva Conventions.