Baroness Berridge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Berridge on 2015-10-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the Central African Republic should be included in the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict initiative.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Work in the Central African Republic (CAR) has been an important part of the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative in recognition of the large role that sexual violence has played in the conflict in CAR which has included the sexual abuse of women and children, sexual slavery and rape. This work has, to date, been primarily carried out through our work with the African Union (AU). Since the launch of the initiative, the UK has provided £1.3 million to support the AU’s Gender Peace and Security Programme. This includes the deployment of sexual violence experts that were deployed to the CAR in 2014. These experts provided support to victims in the districts of Paoua, Kaga-Bandoro and Bambar. This Programme also supported the AU’s Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, Madame Bineta Diop. We are working with the AU to build on this deployment and increase AU capacity to carry out similar deployments in the future.