Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations by the Henry Jackson Society to create international legal taskforces to gather evidence on the use of sexual violence against women as a tactic of (1) terrorists, and (2) traffickers, as set out in its report Trafficking Terror, published in October.

We condemn the use of sexual violence by terrorist organisations and are committed to holding perpetrators to account. UK law enforcement agencies are already assessing with multilateral and bilateral partners the threat posed globally by terrorism and human trafficking. Our Team of Experts is also supporting efforts to gather evidence of sexual violence in conflict. The Henry Jackson Society's report makes a number of valid points and we will be giving them due consideration. As I set out in reply to the question from the noble Baroness Cox on 1 November 2017 the UK Government fully supports UN Security Council Resolution 2331 addressing the links between human trafficking, sexual violence and terrorism. In September, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted UK-drafted UNSCR 2379, setting up an investigative team to gather evidence of crimes committed by Daesh, including sexual violence, beginning in Iraq. The team will be led by a Special Adviser with a mandate to promote the need to hold Daesh to account across the globe.