Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Saudi Arabian counterpart on human rights abuses in that country.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The British government regularly raises its human rights concerns with the Saudi Arabian authorities at the highest levels through Ministers, our Ambassador, and the Embassy team in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia remains a Foreign & Commonwealth Office country of concern because of the human rights situation in the country, particularly on the use of the death penalty, restricted access to justice, restrictions on women’s rights, as well as on freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion or belief. We regularly make our views well known including through the UN Universal Periodic Review process and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s annual Human Rights and Democracy Report.