King’s Speech

Baroness Hussein-Ece Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, I welcome the commitment in the King’s speech that the Government

“will champion the rights of women and girls to live in a world free from violence”.

I recently read a 2001 UNFPA report. The introduction said:

“The nature of armed conflicts changed dramatically during the latter half of the twentieth century, with casualties among civilians increasingly outnumbering those of military personnel”.


We know that women and girls are now the most vulnerable in all modern conflicts. I want to focus on the impact of conflict on women and girls, especially as preventing conflict seems to have taken a back seat in the intervening years.

This week, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact published the latest assessment of the global context for development co-operation. This watchdog warns that the UK’s “modernised approach” to development must address significant global pressures through clear, measurable commitments if it is to deliver lasting impact.

This is at a time when sexual violence as a weapon of war remains widespread. Conflict-related sexual violence surged by 25% in 2024, with millions of women still needing and reliant on humanitarian assistance. One-quarter of countries report a backlash against women’s rights. One in five children worldwide is growing up in a conflict-related area, being killed and injured. The bleak reality is that, at the current pace of progress, ending gender-based violence and achieving equality for women and girls will take another 100 years.

The need has never been greater. According to the UNFPA, the impact of recent cuts to its programmes has been that more than 11 million people lost access to essential sexual and reproductive health and protection services. The maternal health clinic may still be there, but the midwife has gone. There is no emergency obstetric equipment, no post-rape kits, and no contraceptives or menstrual supplies on the shelves.

In Afghanistan—which has already been mentioned very eloquently by others—according to Plan International, women and girls now face the severe crisis of malnutrition, alongside systematic human rights abuses. While this is happening, relations with the Taliban have become increasingly normalised globally. In Sudan, which was raised very eloquently by the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, and the noble Lord, Lord Bates, the humanitarian situation is worsening as the conflict continues, with 25 million now at risk of starvation.

According to the recent Amnesty International report:

“Women in Gaza are being denied the conditions needed to live and to give life safely. This … erosion of their rights to health, safety, dignity … is a deliberate act … targeting women and girls. It is also the … consequence of Israel’s calculated … practices of multiple mass displacement, deliberate restrictions on … essential items, as well as humanitarian relief, and … years of relentless bombardment that have devastated Gaza’s health system and decimated entire families”.


I would welcome an update on what the Government are doing about that.

According to Human Rights Watch, women’s agency and participation in peacebuilding, accountability and political leadership is the most important step countries can take to protect women’s rights during conflict and to uphold a right enshrined 25 years ago at the UN Security Council. Upholding women’s rights requires having women at every table, all the time. The United Kingdom is in the unique position of being the UN penholder for women, peace and security. With that comes an opportunity that the UK can use for global political clout and leverage, especially at a time when opportunities and the hard-won rights of women and girls are slipping back, with deepening inequality.

Will fulfilling the ambition in the King’s Speech to protect and prioritise the rights of women and girls globally include using the UK’s diplomacy, redoubling its soft powers to counter the global rollback of the rights of women and girls, providing flexible, long-term funding to women and girls-led organisations, and working across government to tackle violence against women and girls in the UK and globally, aligned with the commitment to halve violence against women by 2030? Will the UK Government ensure that life-saving sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services are central to humanitarian action? In 2026—25 years on from the report I mentioned in my introduction—millions of women and girls have none of the rights that we would wish them to have: safety, choice, opportunities and, most of all, a voice.