The Lord Bishop of Durham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of Durham on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have deployed, or intend to deploy, experts from the UK preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative team to help support local responses in Burundi to conflict-related sexual violence.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We take the allegations of sexual violence in Burundi very seriously. The UK has been at the forefront of supporting the UN’s efforts to encourage an end to violence and human rights abuses in the country. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge), has raised the subject with the Government of Burundi, including with the Burundian Foreign Minister at the African Union Summit in January. While we have not deployed any experts from the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative, Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials will explore the possibility of supporting non-governmental organisations already present and active in Burundi when the allegations first came to our attention.