Religious Freedom
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what guidance his Department has issued to (a) diplomats and (b) heads of mission on promoting freedom of religion or belief overseas.
Answered by Stephen Doughty
In June 2025, Lord Collins, the Minister for Africa, wrote to all Heads of Mission to underline the importance of embedding our human rights priorities - including Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) - into every aspect of our work. On 8 July 2025, the UK Special Envoy for FoRB and Lord Collins outlined the UK's approach to FoRB at an event for stakeholders and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) staff. Both speeches were published on GOV.UK and shared with all our diplomatic posts.
FoRB is incorporated within FCDO's broader human rights training programme. This includes workshops on religious or belief engagement for staff delivered in the UK and overseas. We also provide several additional tools for staff, particularly those based overseas, to support work on FoRB, including a FoRB Toolkit, scale of persecution and framework for FoRB reporting.
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