§ Bob SpinkTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has received from(a)Amnesty International and (b) the international community on gender-based violence in Russia; and if he will make a statement. [161944]
§ Mr. RammellWe receive, and welcome representations from Amnesty International and other international and Russian NGOs on a wide range of human rights issues in the Russian Federation. During Amnesty's "Justice for All" campaign last year, which included gender-based violence in Russia, we worked very closely with the campaign manager and earlier this month we jointly hosted a successful workshop for UK and Russian NGOs which included discussion of women's rights.
Violence and discrimination against women remains a concern in Russia. The UK is currently funding the Moscow Helsinki Group to train a network of NGOs to respond to violations of women's rights. For the last 10 years, we have also supported a project in St. Petersburg, which trains NGOs and police officers in handling domestic violence.