It comes as part of a funding package to "support grassroots human rights defenders and advance equality and freedom across the Commonwealth", with a particular focus on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) community.

The Commonwealth Sport Foundation is also donating £50,000 ($61,000/€58,000) to the Pride House project, which aims to provide a safe space for LGBTQ+ people at Birmingham 2022.

There is set to be a Pride House presence at the three main Athletes' Village sites; the main facility will be located at Wynner House and is due to be open from July 22 until August 8.

In total the Government is making £2.7 million ($3.3 million/€3.1 million) available "to encourage the reform of outdated laws and policies that fail to protect all individuals from violence and discrimination" throughout the Commonwealth.

Thirty-six countries in the Commonwealth criminalise homosexuality.

"The Commonwealth is a voluntary grouping of independent and equal nations, but as a collective it has long been a powerful force for good," said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

"The values that our members hold dear, from human rights to equality, should apply to everyone in society.

"I am immensely proud of the UK’s record on LGBT rights - the freedom to love who you want is a core British value and a vital component of any democracy.

"I hope world will see these values in action at next month’s Commonwealth Games."

Johnson's comments came at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Rwanda's capital Kigali.

Same-sex marriages are not recognised by the state in Rwanda, and activists say that while homosexuality is not outlawed, members of the LGBTQ+ community regularly face persecution.

Human Rights Watch has claimed that Rwandan authorities rounded up and detained more than a dozen gay and transgender people, sex workers, street children and others in the months before an international conference last year.