To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to the government
of Iraq about the prosecution of ISIS operatives responsible for the murder, enslavement,
deportation, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, abduction, exploitation, abuse,
rape, forced marriage, and enforced disappearance of Yazidis, Christians and other
religious minorities in Iraq; and how many prosecutions have taken place.
<p>We regularly urge the Government of Iraq, at both official and ministerial levels,
to uphold the freedoms and rights of all minorities across Iraq. We are working with
the Government of Iraq to ensure that members of Daesh are held to account for their
appalling crimes. The Prime Minister underlined this message with former Prime Minister
Abadi during her visit to Iraq in November 2017, and both the Minister for the Middle
East and North Africa and I reiterated it during our visits in March and April 2018
respectively. The Minister for the Middle East and North Africa also raised the need
to protect minority communities with the new Iraqi Foreign Minister during a phone
call on 14 November.</p><p>The UN Investigative Team (established under UN Security
Council Resolution 2379) has deployed to Iraq to begin gathering evidence. The UK
has committed £1 million to the establishment of this team. It will gather evidence
of Daesh crimes, including those against the Yezidi, Christian and other minority
communities; it aims to help secure justice for all Daesh's victims, regardless of
their religion or belief.</p><p>The British Government does not publish details of
prosecutions carried out by other governments.</p>
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings of
the UNESCO Director-General's 2018 Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger
of Impunity which found that 104 journalists were killed in eight Commonwealth countries
between 2006 and 2015, and that in none of these cases the perpetrators were brought
to justice.
<p>The Government is committed to tackling intimidation and violence against journalists
wherever it occurs, including in Commonwealth countries, and to challenging impunity
for such crimes. The Foreign Secretary highlighted our determination to address this
issue on the International Day to End Impunity for Attacks Against Journalists on
2 November, announcing our intention to put the resources of the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (FCO) behind the cause of media freedom and to hold an international conference
on this issue, in 2019. We welcome the attention UNESCO has given to this problem.</p><p>We
support the work of the Commonwealth Working Group on Media and Good Governance on
Commonwealth principles of freedom of expression and the role of the media in good
governance, and their continued efforts to prepare them for consideration at the Heads
of Government meeting in Rwanda in 2020. Officials from the FCO and Cabinet Office
have offered advice and support to members of the Working Group, most recently on
12 November 2018. The Working Group was given the opportunity to brief all member
states on the proposed principles at senior official level, ahead of the Commonwealth
Heads of Government meeting in April 2018. However, there was no consensus amongst
member states for the principles to be formally included on Heads' agenda or in their
official communiqué. We have discussed the principles with the Commonwealth Secretariat
on several occasions since the Heads of Government Meeting. We continue to encourage
the Working Group to work with member states and the Secretariat to build consensus
towards adoption of the principles.</p>
