Naomi Long – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Naomi Long on 2014-06-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policy towards Burma of the recently published brief by the Chin Human Rights Organisation entitled The state of freedom of religion or belief for Chin in Burma, 2013.

Mr Hugo Swire

We are aware of the Chin Human Rights Organisation and their report on freedom of religion and belief in Chin State. We are currently implementing some of the recommendations that the report makes to the international community, including regularly raising the importance of Freedom of Religion and Belief in discussions with the Burmese government.

During my visit to Burma in January, I raised the full range of our human rights concerns with senior members of the Burmese government and called for religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue in a speech in Rangoon. Freedom of Religion and Belief was also discussed during the first EU/Burma Human Rights Dialogue in May 2014.

Our Ambassador and Embassy officials meet regularly with representatives of all faith communities, both in Rangoon and in the wider country, including in Chin State. The UK has provided funding for interfaith dialogue to help build trust between communities – for example a project promoting peace building among youths from different faith groups.