Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) what criteria they used for including countries in their report Human Rights and Democracy: 2020 Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, published on 8 July, (2) how Cameroon was assessed against those criteria, and (3) what plans they have to change those criteria for next year’s report.

The 2020 FCDO Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report (AHRR) features 31 Human Rights Priority Countries (HRPCs). The HRPC list was reviewed and updated in early 2021 ahead of the report's publication in July, with assessment based on the human rights situation in country, the trajectory of change, and the UK's ability to make a difference. African countries including Cameroon were considered using this criteria. We expect the majority of HRPCs to remain in place for the duration of this Parliament pending exceptional developments, as this provides a reasonable base-line against which to assess our impact. While the HRPCs help us to prioritise our work, our interests and work are global, as reflected in the many other country references in the thematic sections of the AHRR.