Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the United Nations Human Rights Council on 17 December 2021, if she will take steps to discuss at that meeting the potential merits of (a) introducing a robust independent mechanism to investigate human rights abuses during the current conflict in Ethiopia and (b) tackling the spread of misinformation.

We have frequently and consistently raised the need for full humanitarian access in Ethiopia at the Human Rights Council and at the UN Security Council. The Foreign Secretary, as Chair of the G7 Foreign and Development Minister's meeting, made a statement on 12 December also calling for unimpeded humanitarian access. The statement also called for an additional independent investigation on human rights violations as recommended by the Joint Investigation report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. In my most recent discussion with Ethiopian Government Ministers - with Minister of State Redwan on 18 November and Justice Minister Gedion on 6 December - I raised our concerns about mass detentions, ethnic profiling, and hate speech. We will continue to take all opportunities to raise these important matters.