Lord Cashman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Cashman on 2016-04-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of including the Department for International Development in discussions and representations at the Global LGBTI Human Rights Conference in Uruguay from 13 to 15 July.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
As I set out to the House on the 21 March, and in my answers of 5 April, and the noble Baroness Verma’s answer of 31 March, the British Government will send a delegation to the Global Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and/or Intersex (LGBTI) Human Rights Conference taking place in Montevideo in July.
The Government is clear in its belief that human rights are universal and should apply equally to all people everywhere. We are opposed to all forms of discrimination and work to uphold the rights and freedoms of LGBTI people in all circumstances. We support the key objectives of the conference: to provide an important opportunity to share information, best practice and lessons learned with partners and to discuss how to better coordinate international efforts to support the promotion and protection of the rights of LGBTI people worldwide. We are committed to working with those countries that will be represented at the conference, and others, to better coordinate work to combat discrimination and violence against LGBTI people. This forms an important part of our wider international human rights work.
Precise composition of the UK delegation to the conference remains to be confirmed. With the exception of the co-hosts, the Governments of the Netherlands and Uruguay, we judge it likely that countries will be represented at official level.
