Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will issue a response to EDM 211, 2016 Report by UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea, tabled on 14 June 2016.

James Duddridge

Following the publication of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea, we remain concerned about human rights issues in the country. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s latest Human Rights Report includes Eritrea in its list of 30 priority countries for the UK government and sets out the changes needed. We continue to press the government of Eritrea, including at ministerial level, to take concrete steps to improve its respect for human rights.

We welcome the recent increased engagement between Eritrea and the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Eritrea’s agreement to work with the United Nations Development Programme to implement the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review on human rights. We urge further such cooperation to help bring about human rights reform in Eritrea.

We will give a full statement when the UN Human Rights Council discusses the COI’s report on 21 June.