Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding they are putting into (1) international, and (2) national, unarmed civilian protection; and which projects that have been funded are directed at, or include elements of, such work.

Protecting civilians is at the core of the FCDO's work to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts around the world. This involves working bilaterally and multilaterally not only on resolution of conflict itself, but also to ensure that parties involved respect their obligations under international law, and to condemn violations of those obligations.The highest civilian protection needs are in contexts of armed conflict, therefore the UK is proud to have committed approximately £600 million this financial year for bilateral humanitarian protection and assistance in fragile and conflict affected states. In addition, the UK funds the work of multilateral organisations and agencies with a protection focus. For example, in the last financial year, we have provided £63 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to protect and assist the victims of conflict and promote compliance with International Humanitarian Law and £35 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In addition to our mandatory peacekeeping and UN regular budget contributions, we provided £250,000 this financial year to improve protection of civilians in peacekeeping, including a project on unarmed approaches. We will continue to use our role in the UN Security Council and other international fora to champion civilian protection, including humanitarian principles, International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law and refugee law.