Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 9 November (HL2598), what steps they are taking, if any, to improve the protection of British Muslim women in family law.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Government continues to study the evidence, to assess options for improving protections for Muslim women on the breakdown of a marriage that is not legally recognised.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to ask the Law Commission to examine how to improve the protection of British Muslim women in marriage law.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Muslims are free to enter into a legally valid marriage in their place of worship under the same provisions that apply to most other religious groups. The Government recognises that there are complex reasons that some do not, including conscious choice. We are considering the issues, but we have not seen evidence that changing the law would necessarily address the concern.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial and practical assistance they have given to aid the Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh; and what further assistance they intend to give.
Answered by Lord Bates
The UK is the largest bilateral donor to the Rohingya refugee crisis, and in addition to the £35m the UK had committed since the start of this crisis, on October 23rd the UK announced a further £12m of support - bringing the UK total to £47m. This funding is already providing food to 174,000 people, safe water and sanitation for more than 138,000 people and emergency shelter for over 130,000 people. In addition, the new funding will allow emergency nutrition support to reach more than 60,000 children under five, counselling and psychological support to reach over 10,000 women suffering from the trauma of war and over 2,000 survivors of sexual violence, and will provide medical help for over 50,000 pregnant women to give birth safely. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which faith and regeneration projects the Government works with to meet recommendation one of the Government Response to the Women and Equalities Committee Report on Employment Opportunities for Muslims in the UK, published in December 2016, Cm 9371, to rebuild trust with Muslim communities by improving the life chances of disadvantaged communities.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
The Department for Communities and Local Government supports a number of programmes that seek to bring communities together.
We are providing £1.65 million in 2017/18 to support the Near Neighbours programme, which has enabled Muslim women to develop a range of employment and life skills. We have funded Nisa-Nashim which brings together Jewish and Muslim women around the themes of business, culture, social action, sports and well-being. In 2015/16 we provided support through a Women’s Empowerment fund to 14 separate projects working with women from isolated and BME communities.
The forthcoming integration strategy will further set out how we will support people in more isolated communities and assist women, in particular into the workplace, and teach more people to speak English.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of whether the Burmese Government's domestic process for investigating claims of sexual violence by Burmese security forces against Rohingya Muslim women is consistent with the standards set out in the International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Government of Burma is conducting a national investigation into reports of human rights abuses, including reports of sexual violence, perpetrated by the Burmese security forces in Rakhine State since October 2016. The Rakhine Investigation Commission's interim report of 3 January concluded that there was insufficient evidence to take legal action. We have made clear that we do not find the Rakhine Investigation's interim findings credible.
We are aware of reports which suggest weaknesses in the Commission's composition and approach. The International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict sets out minimum basic principles and international best practice for such investigations, and we encourage its use. However, it is not intended to insist on a universal legal or professional standard.
The Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my noble Friend, the Rt Hon. Baroness Anelay of St Johns visited Burma in November, and pressed the Minister of Defence on the importance of transparency and accountability in their field.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on steps to tackle Islamophobia.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Anti-Muslim hatred is completely abhorrent and this Government is committed to preventing and tacking it.
We have set up the first ever cross-government working group on anti-Muslim hatred, and we have published a new Hate Crime Action Plan to help us ensure nobody in this country lives in fear because of who they are.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Coventry (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the current level of violence against Hindus in Pakistan.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We remain concerned by ongoing reports of the persecution of the Hindu community in Pakistan. These include incidents of abduction, forced conversion and the forced marriage of Hindu women to Muslim men. We regularly raise our concerns about the treatment of religious minorities, including Hindus, with the Government of Pakistan. The former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), pressed Pakistan to guarantee the rights of all its citizens, including minority religious communities, during his visit to Islamabad in March. We continue to urge Pakistan to honour in practice its human rights obligations, including on freedom of religion or belief, and to uphold the rule of law.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the introduction of the English language tuition scheme in supporting Muslim women to learn English.
Answered by Marcus Jones - Treasurer of HM Household (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Commons)
As the first step in rolling out the new £20 million programme we have committed just over £3 million to enable six providers who delivered the Department’s previous community-based English language programme to provide new tuition to over 10,000 people by March next year.
We will shortly be issuing a new Prospectus, inviting applications to run the bulk of the new programme from 2017. The nature and targeting of that provision will be informed by Louise Casey’s Review of Integration and Opportunity.
We will monitor the new Programme to assess its effectiveness in meeting its objectives.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to protect British girls in the Dawoodi Bohra community from female genital mutilation, in the light of the sermon by Supreme Leader Mufaddal Saifuddin on 25 April urging that all girls must undergo that procedure.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. We will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls.
We will not stop FGM until we have changed attitudes within communities. The Government works closely with a range of community and faith groups, including Muslim women's groups, to tackle FGM. Over 350 faith leaders from all the major faiths have signed a declaration condemning FGM. They have declared that it is not required by their religions and is a form of child abuse. The declaration makes clear that all religions will work together to end FGM for good. We continue to work with community organisations and survivors through the Governments FGM Unit's stakeholder group and outreach programme to drive this work forward.
In 2014 the Government ran a national communications campaign to raise awareness. We also funded 29 community engagement projects, including a network of community champions, who are reaching thousands of women and girls affected by FGM, and, importantly, their families. The work of these projects has included training for teachers, awareness sessions in local mosques, and the establishment of a new national website for, and by, young people giving information about how to prevent FGM. The Department for Communities and Local Government has established a network of community champions which is operating in London, Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham. Champions are working with local people to address the myths that sustain FGM and to help keep girls safe.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he is making to the Nigerian government on securing the release of non-Muslim underage girls who have been abducted, forcibly converted and forcibly married in states in the north of that country.
Answered by James Duddridge
We have received a number of reports on the abduction, forced conversion and forced marriage of women and girls by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria. These women and girls reportedly come from both Muslim and Christian communities. Due to the nature of Boko Haram attacks, which often take place in remote areas, it is difficult to obtain precise data on such activities.
We welcome the progress made by Nigeria and its neighbours against Boko Haram, including the release of women and children. We regularly raise the issue of abducted women and girls with the Nigerian government at the highest levels, and have stressed the importance of providing appropriate support to those who are rescued.
The UK remains fully committed to supporting Nigeria’s efforts to tackle Boko Haram, support those targeted by its indiscriminate campaign of violence, and find those who are missing. We are providing a substantial and increasing package of intelligence, military and development support to Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram.