Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment has he made of the ability of the Palestinian Authority to ensure that the human rights of all citizens are respected.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has made important progress on state-building, including the promotion and protection of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). Our Consul General in Jerusalem regularly engages with the PA and emphasises the importance of respecting human rights, particularly in regard to law and security. We encourage the PA to reflect their human rights obligations in domestic law and ensure they are fully adhered to. We are, however, concerned about the inability of the PA to access certain areas of the OPTs where Palestinians are subject to human rights violations, including through settler violence and the death penalty.