The Yazidi community has suffered immense pain and loss as a result of the abhorrent crimes inflicted by Daesh. The UK advocated strongly for the passing of the Yazidi Survivors' Law in March 2021 and the establishment of the Directorate of Yazidi Affairs. The Directorate is responsible for searching for survivors and supporting judicial and investigative bodies on holding perpetrators to account. In parallel, we have also provided £2 million to the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh (UNITAD). The UK joined likeminded partners in committing to support Yazidis displaced or abducted by Daesh in a Joint alliance statement issued in October 2021. We will continue to press the newly formed government on the importance of these issues, including searching for those missing Yazidi women and children abducted by Daesh.

The Government takes any allegations of human rights abuses or violations extremely seriously and stands ready to challenge governments on these allegations. These are grave allegations made by Human Rights Watch and we stand ready to raise concerns with the Kurdistan Regional Government. We are currently working with the European Union Delegation in Kurdistan, other local diplomatic missions and Human Rights Watch to better understand the allegations. Once this process has been completed we will consider what further action will follow.

At the Supporting Syria and the Region conference, the UK committed to more than double our total pledge to the Syria crisis to over £2.3 billion. Within this allocation, we committed to double education funding for Lebanon to £40 million per year and increase funding in Jordan to £20 million a year to support the conference goal of getting all refugee children from Syria and vulnerable children in host communities in quality education by the end of the 2016/17 school year. We also committed to increasing access to learning for the 2.1 million children out of school in Syria itself.

Implementation plans to deliver the Conference goals on education are currently being discussed with partner governments, UN agencies, NGOs and donors. New UK funding will be aligned with these plans, and will be implemented through partners who can deliver increases in access to quality education, quickly, efficiently and at scale. Implementing partners will be identified selected in accordance with normal DFID procedures.

All UK aid partners responding on the ground in Syria and in refugee hosting countries target the most vulnerable individuals caught up in conflict – particularly women, children, people with disabilities and the elderly. Programmes are designed in close collaboration with disabled people and their families to ensure due consideration of their particular needs and all new DFID projects must demonstrate compliance with the International Development Gender Equality Bill.