Fabian Hamilton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fabian Hamilton on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the level of freedom of religion or belief in the Tibet autonomous region.

Mr Hugo Swire

We consider freedom of religion or belief to be a fundamental human right and support its protection and promotion around the world. We have concerns about restrictions on freedom of religion or belief and the wider treatment of ethnic minorities in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. I made clear a range of our concerns during a Westminster Hall Debate on Tibet on 18 June. We continue to raise our related concerns in detail with the Chinese authorities, for example during the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue. We have highlighted a range of our concerns in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy (www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk). We will continue to raise our concerns as part of our wider relationship with China.