International Women’s Day

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Lloyd of Effra, for tabling this important debate.

I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Nargund, on her excellent maiden speech. May I add my own Wimbledon Wombles welcome to the noble Baroness? I look forward to working with her on all matters Wimbledon—and, indeed, Tooting St George’s, which is a hospital that I know well. I also look forward to the other four maiden speeches.

Talking of speeches, I am proud to be in a minority today. Around 15% of today’s list of speakers are men. I am proud of that, but we need more. Advocacy on strengthening the rights of women both in the UK and, more importantly, internationally is not for women alone. It needs the voices of men—not just symbolically or through words but through actions.

The need for such advocacy and change is most apparent when we look at the human conflict seizing the world today. We heard from the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, about Afghanistan, where women are absent in conflict resolution, negotiating and peacebuilding. Yet, as we have already heard, women and girls are, tragically, the first victims of war.

Nowhere is this stark reality clearer today than in relation to conflict-related sexual violence. Women and girls represent 95% of the victims of these abhorrent crimes. They are targeted with slavery, rape, forced pregnancy and forced marriage. When I took on the role of Minister of State at the FCDO, I was also honoured to be appointed as the Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict—an initiative first started by my noble friend and dear friend Lord Hague. I realised that the challenges are far more complex than any Minister may imagine and that the real learning and real leadership in this fight come not from Ministers and bureaucrats but from the extraordinary survivors whose courage, through the horrors inflicted on victims, humbles us all.

I wish to share with noble Lords the story of an innocent four year-old I met in the DRC. She was raped not once, not twice, but half a dozen times, and her shrill, fearful cries echo in my ears even today. Yet, through the amazing work of the Panzi Hospital and the inspiration and devotion of the Nobel laureate Dr Denis Mukwege, she was given a glimmer of hope—that light beyond the horrors of war.

As we mark International Women’s Day, while we rightly recognise and celebrate the achievements of women from across the world, we must also confront one of the most brutal realities of the crimes that persist in modern conflict. The use of sexual violence, particularly against women and girls, is real. It is not an unfortunate by-product of conflict; it is a tactic; it is deliberate. It is designed to terrorise communities, fracture societies and leave scars that last for generations.

I saw this directly during my time as a Minister. I met women in Iraq who endured unspeakable horrors and brutality at the hands of Daesh terrorists. I listened to women survivors from Bosnia who, decades after the war, still carry the trauma of crimes. I met Yazidi women who had been enslaved, traded, abused and dehumanised in so many unspeakable ways; they said to me that their worth and value were less than that of an ant. Yet what struck me was not just these women’s testimony after their suffering but their strength in confronting stigma and rejection by their own communities and in demanding justice for not just themselves but others.

Many survivors become powerful advocates. I was honoured to work with the likes of Nadia Murad on developing and delivering the Murad code. I recognise the tireless work of people such as Amal Clooney in the international courts and that of Nadine Tunasi, a survivor whom I appointed and who helped me develop strategy on this issue. I also pay tribute to the convening power of Her Royal Highness Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, whose compassion and determination have ensured that the voices of survivors are heard.

The United Kingdom has always sought not simply to raise awareness but to lead on this agenda. I ask the Minister directly to protect the budget when it comes to PSVI and to continue to show leadership. We established the International Alliance on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, which is a coalition of countries. I ask the Minister for an update on the alliance to ensure that the priorities it set—supporting the training of investigators, strengthening documentation mechanisms and ensuring that we stand as a strong voice—continue.

Today, in conflicts from Ukraine to Sudan and from the Middle East to parts of Africa, women and girls continue to face the same brutality that survivors described to me over those seven years. Justice for survivors is not simply a moral obligation—it is essential to lasting peace. The survivors I met asked for sympathy, for justice, for dignity and, above all, for the world never to look away.