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1129338

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	Alia Abdel Nour
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will ask his Emirati counterpart to establish an urgent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of UAE prisoner of conscience Alia Abdel Nour, who passed away from breast cancer in Tawam hospital on 4 May 2019.
	tabling member constituency	Carshalton and Wallington
	tabling member printed	Tom Brake
	uin	258887
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2019 answer text <p>​I refer the hon. Member to answer of 12 March 2019 (PQ 228081). We are aware of reports regarding the death of Alia Abdel Nour. Our close relationship with the United Arab Emirates allows us to discuss important issues and where the UK has cause for concern, we raise these concerns at official and Ministerial level.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 11/06/2019 15:38:34 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
	tabling member	151 label Biography information for Tom Brake

1129604

	registered interest
	date	04/06/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	Belarus: Diplomatic Relations
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent diplomatic activity there has been with Belarus.
	tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
	tabling member printed	Sir Nicholas Soames
	uin	259815
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2019 answer text <p>The UK has steadily increased its engagement with Belarus since the release of political prisoners in August 2015 and consequent lifting of the majority of EU Restrictive Measures in February 2016. I met President Lukashenka and Foreign Minister Makei in October 2017 in Minsk and FM Makei again in London in March 2018. I last met the Belarusian Ambassador on 30 April. Our officials maintain regular discussions with their Belarusian counterparts, via our Embassy in Minsk, and through multilateral fora, such as the EU, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and UN.</p> answering member constituency Rutland and Melton answering member printed Sir Alan Duncan question first answered 10/06/2019 15:56:40 answering member 343 label Biography information for Sir Alan Duncan
	tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching

1129603

	registered interest
	date	04/06/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	Belarus: Foreign Relations
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the UK's policy is toward Belarus.
	tabling member constituency	Mid Sussex
	tabling member printed	Sir Nicholas Soames
	uin	259814
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2019 answer text <p>UK engagement in Europe's Eastern Neighbourhood is focused on building regional stability, encouraging reform and promoting prosperity. For Belarus, this means encouraging economic reform, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and more responsible participation in the international rules-based system.</p> answering member constituency Rutland and Melton answering member printed Sir Alan Duncan question first answered 10/06/2019 15:54:27 answering member 343 label Biography information for Sir Alan Duncan
	tabling member	116 label Biography information for Lord Soames of Fletching

1129023

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	Brazil: Forests
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions the Government has had with international counterparts in the last 12 months on tackling the deforestation of the Cerrado savannah.
	tabling member constituency	Bristol East
	tabling member printed	Kerry McCarthy
	uin	259090
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2019 answer text <p>The UK has worked closely with Brazil's Ministries of Environment and Agriculture, Livestock and Supply to deliver a number of climate change mitigation and avoided deforestation programmes, including in the Cerrado savannah.</p><p>For example, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affiars has invested £10 million of international climate finance in the Reducing Deforestation in the Brazilian Cerrado Programme, which ran from 2012 to 2018 in partnership with the World Bank. The programme has successfully enabled 38,017 farmers to enrol on the Rural Environmental Registry in 43 municipalities in order to improve natural resource management and environmental compliance in the Cerrado. The programme also strengthened capacity to prevent and combat forest fires by developing a state of the art monitoring and warning system and supporting twelve municipalities and three Protected Areas to properly manage and combat forest fires.</p><p>Our current involvement in the Cerrado includes phase 2 of the Rural Sustentável programme, which will start implementation in July. The programme aims to support small and medium-sized farmers in adopting low-carbon agriculture in the Cerrado and Caatinga biomes in order to reduce deforestation. It is being delivered in partnership with Inter-American Development Bank and Brazil's agricultural research agency, with whom we have regular discussions.</p> answering member constituency Rutland and Melton answering member printed Sir Alan Duncan question first answered 10/06/2019 16:23:18 answering member 343 label Biography information for Sir Alan Duncan
	tabling member	1491 label Biography information for Kerry McCarthy

1130145

	registered interest
	date	05/06/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	Brazil: Rainforests
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in the Brazilian Government on the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
	tabling member constituency	Ceredigion
	tabling member printed	Ben Lake
	uin	260720
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2019 answer text <p>Our posts in Brazil frequently engage with the Brazilian Government on a number of environmental issues including deforestation. We are working with Brazil to help ensure it continues to protect the Amazon and have invested nearly £120 million through the International Climate Fund on projects to limit deforestation, prevent forest fires and implement the Forestry Code in the Amazon, Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes.</p> answering member constituency Rutland and Melton answering member printed Sir Alan Duncan question first answered 10/06/2019 16:03:07 answering member 343 label Biography information for Sir Alan Duncan
	tabling member	4630 label Biography information for Ben Lake

1129854

	registered interest
	date	04/06/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	China: Corruption
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the extent of corruption within the (a) designing and planning, (b) constructing and physically maintaining and (c) running the network of detention camps targeting ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang, China.
	tabling member constituency	West Ham
	tabling member printed	Lyn Brown
	uin	259918
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2019 answer text <p>We have not made an assessment of the extent of corruption within the so-called “re-education camps” in Xinjiang. Nevertheless, we have particularly serious concerns about the credible reports of over a million Uyghurs and other minorities being detained in these camps.</p><p> </p><p>Indeed, ministers and senior officials frequently raise the issue with their Chinese counterparts. The Foreign Secretary highlighted our concerns with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his most recent visit to China. Later that month, I did the same with my Chinese counterpart Vice Minister Guo Yezhou. Additionally, our Embassy in Beijing regularly raises the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang with the Chinese authorities.</p><p> </p><p>Further, we spoke publicly about the situation in the region at the 40th UN Human Rights Council in February and March. The Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad, also raised our concerns during his opening address on 25 February, and the UK spoke about Xinjiang during our “Item 4” national statement on 12 March. Following this, we co-sponsored a side event on “Protecting the fundamental freedoms in Xinjiang” on 13 March which helped to raise awareness of the situation among the international community.</p><p> </p><p>Moreover, in our statement at China’s Universal Periodic Review on 6 November, we made clear our concern about the treatment of Uyghurs in China. The UK issued a specific recommendation to China that it implements the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s recommendations on Xinjiang and allows the UN to monitor the implementation.</p> answering member constituency Cities of London and Westminster answering member printed Mark Field question first answered 11/06/2019 13:28:37 answering member 1405 label Biography information for Mark Field
	tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown

1129063

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	China: Human Rights
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the upcoming anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, whether he plans to use that anniversary to make representations to the Chinese Government on the human rights situation that country.
	tabling member constituency	Hornsey and Wood Green
	tabling member printed	Catherine West
	uin	259369
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2019 answer text <p>To mark the 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the tragic events in Tiananmen Square, the Foreign Secretary released a statement remembering those who lost their lives when protesting peacefully, and urging the Chinese Government to respect the rights and freedoms enshrined in China’s constitution and in international law.</p><p> </p><p>The British Government raises human rights with the Chinese authorities at all levels and will continue to do so. I raised human rights concerns with State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during my last visit to China. We also raise issues publicly, for example, we registered our concerns about human rights in China in our national statements at recent sessions of the UN Human Rights Council and through our activity at China’s last Universal Periodic Review in November 2018.</p><p> </p><p>British diplomats in Beijing have reported increased censorship and surveillance of citizens in China in the weeks leading up to 4 June. This is a common pattern they observe in the run up to the 4 June anniversary. In recent years, the Chinese authorities have also focused on censoring discussion on the anniversary on social media in China, which has reportedly included some Western news websites being restricted more than usual within China around this period. The British Embassy in China experienced such censorship first hand this week; the Embassy posted my statement in English and Chinese through social media, which was then censored within a few minutes.</p><p> </p><p>We remain concerned by all restrictions on freedom of expression in China and urge the authorities to safeguard citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and expression. It is crucial that governments allow their societies and citizens to remember, debate and discuss important historical events, even when this is uncomfortable for the governments concerned.</p><p> </p><p>The British Government also remains committed to making representations to the Chinese Government on the rights of relatives of protestors. During the Foreign Secretary’s last visit to China, he met with family members of detained Chinese human rights lawyers who were arrested in the so-called “709 crackdown.”</p> answering member constituency Cities of London and Westminster answering member printed Mark Field question first answered 11/06/2019 13:03:52 answering member 1405 label Biography information for Mark Field
	tabling member	4523 label Biography information for Catherine West

1129064

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	China: Human Rights
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of reports of increased surveillance and censorship ahead of the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
	tabling member constituency	Hornsey and Wood Green
	tabling member printed	Catherine West
	uin	259370
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2019 answer text <p>To mark the 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the tragic events in Tiananmen Square, the Foreign Secretary released a statement remembering those who lost their lives when protesting peacefully, and urging the Chinese Government to respect the rights and freedoms enshrined in China’s constitution and in international law.</p><p> </p><p>The British Government raises human rights with the Chinese authorities at all levels and will continue to do so. I raised human rights concerns with State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during my last visit to China. We also raise issues publicly, for example, we registered our concerns about human rights in China in our national statements at recent sessions of the UN Human Rights Council and through our activity at China’s last Universal Periodic Review in November 2018.</p><p> </p><p>British diplomats in Beijing have reported increased censorship and surveillance of citizens in China in the weeks leading up to 4 June. This is a common pattern they observe in the run up to the 4 June anniversary. In recent years, the Chinese authorities have also focused on censoring discussion on the anniversary on social media in China, which has reportedly included some Western news websites being restricted more than usual within China around this period. The British Embassy in China experienced such censorship first hand this week; the Embassy posted my statement in English and Chinese through social media, which was then censored within a few minutes.</p><p> </p><p>We remain concerned by all restrictions on freedom of expression in China and urge the authorities to safeguard citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and expression. It is crucial that governments allow their societies and citizens to remember, debate and discuss important historical events, even when this is uncomfortable for the governments concerned.</p><p> </p><p>The British Government also remains committed to making representations to the Chinese Government on the rights of relatives of protestors. During the Foreign Secretary’s last visit to China, he met with family members of detained Chinese human rights lawyers who were arrested in the so-called “709 crackdown.”</p> answering member constituency Cities of London and Westminster answering member printed Mark Field question first answered 11/06/2019 13:06:45 answering member 1405 label Biography information for Mark Field
	tabling member	4523 label Biography information for Catherine West

1129065

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	China: Human Rights
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans he has to make representations to the Chinese Government on the rights of the family members of the Tiananmen Square protesters.
	tabling member constituency	Hornsey and Wood Green
	tabling member printed	Catherine West
	uin	259371
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2019 answer text <p>To mark the 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the tragic events in Tiananmen Square, the Foreign Secretary released a statement remembering those who lost their lives when protesting peacefully, and urging the Chinese Government to respect the rights and freedoms enshrined in China’s constitution and in international law.</p><p> </p><p>The British Government raises human rights with the Chinese authorities at all levels and will continue to do so. I raised human rights concerns with State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during my last visit to China. We also raise issues publicly, for example, we registered our concerns about human rights in China in our national statements at recent sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council and through our activity at China’s last Universal Periodic Review in November 2018.</p><p> </p><p>British diplomats in Beijing have reported increased censorship and surveillance of citizens in China in the weeks leading up to 4 June. This is a common pattern they observe in the run up to the 4 June anniversary. In recent years, the Chinese authorities have also focused on censoring discussion on the anniversary on social media in China, which has reportedly included some Western news websites being restricted more than usual within China around this period. The British Embassy in China experienced such censorship first hand this week; the Embassy posted my statement in English and Chinese through social media, which was then censored within a few minutes.</p><p> </p><p>We remain concerned by all restrictions on freedom of expression in China and urge the authorities to safeguard citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and expression. It is crucial that governments allow their societies and citizens to remember, debate and discuss important historical events, even when this is uncomfortable for the governments concerned.</p><p> </p><p>The British Government also remains committed to making representations to the Chinese Government on the rights of relatives of protestors. During the Foreign Secretary’s last visit to China, he met with family members of detained Chinese human rights lawyers who were arrested in the so-called “709 crackdown.”</p> answering member constituency Cities of London and Westminster answering member printed Mark Field question first answered 11/06/2019 13:09:19 answering member 1405 label Biography information for Mark Field
	tabling member	4523 label Biography information for Catherine West

1129358

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	China: Uyghurs
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Chinese counterpart in response to recent restrictions placed on the Uighur community during the month of Ramadan.
	tabling member constituency	Newcastle-under-Lyme
	tabling member printed	Paul Farrelly
	uin	259062
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2019 answer text <p>The Foreign Secretary has not to date made representations to his counterpart on the specific issue of reports of restrictions on the Uyghur community during Ramadan. However, Ministers and senior officials frequently raise with their Chinese counterparts our wider concerns about the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. During the Foreign Secretary’s most recent visit to China in July 2018, he raised this with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.</p><p> </p><p>Additionally, we spoke publicly about the situation in Xinjiang at the 40th United Nations Human Rights Council in February and March. The Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, also raised our concerns during his opening address on 25 February, and the UK spoke about Xinjiang during our “Item 4” national statement on 12 March. Following this, we co-sponsored a side event on “Protecting the fundamental freedoms in Xinjiang” on 13 March.</p><p> </p><p>Further, in our statement at China’s Universal Periodic Review on 6 November, we made clear our concern about the treatment of Uyghurs in China. The UK issued a specific recommendation to China that it implements the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s recommendations on Xinjiang and allows the UN to monitor the implementation</p><p>​</p> answering member constituency Cities of London and Westminster answering member printed Mark Field question first answered 11/06/2019 13:26:36 answering member 1405 label Biography information for Mark Field
	tabling member	1436 label Biography information for Paul Farrelly