Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2015-12-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what response they have made to the violence against women in South Sudan since conflict broke out in December 2013.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We remain deeply concerned by the situation in South Sudan and are responding accordingly. We are pressing the Government of Sudan to progress its commitments to tackle violence against women and raised this issue most recently with the Minister of Defence in November. The UK’s humanitarian programme has a strong focus on protection, including supporting the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence. We are also supporting projects that empower women and seek to provide justice to the most vulnerable groups, including women and girls. Additionally, the UK played a key role to ensure the new mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan has an even stronger focus on protecting civilians, including women and girls.