Middle East: Syrian Refugees

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Wednesday 26th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness will know that my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary has emphasised this in terms of how we are approaching the Syrian crisis. We are doing a considerable amount—and it is new work—in trying to support those who have suffered sexual violence in this conflict. That is so often the case in such conflicts, and this is one of the first times we are seeing whether we can gather evidence systematically so that cases can be taken and, in the mean time, supporting those who have suffered in this way.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, is it true that when choosing the refugees who are to come to this country, priority is given to those who are at present located in Egypt and Lebanon, and that Jordan will perhaps not have a share of the numbers? Can my noble friend say any more about the mechanism for selecting candidates to be brought to this country?

[Baroness Northover]

I am not going to comment on where the refugees are coming from. It is extremely important that they are accorded privacy and that their recovery is aided. My noble friend will know that we are prioritising women and children, particularly those who have suffered sexual violence. I am happy to supply further details of the categories. Therefore, we are looking at the cases on their merit and we will not reveal where these people have come from or where they are going at the moment.

Sudan

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Tuesday 11th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

We emphasise all the time that the Government of Sudan are responsible for meeting the needs of their own people. My right honourable friend the Minister for Africa raised a number of key issues relating to the areas the noble Baroness is talking about with the Government of Sudan and key regional figures in a visit last month and at the recent AU summit.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, will my noble friend acknowledge that the Government of Sudan, led by an alleged war criminal, as has been said, has embarked on the genocidal starvation of the population of South Kordofan and Blue Nile by denying all humanitarian access to these states, and by the systematic destruction from the air of their agriculture? Could fresh charges be laid against al-Bashir at the International Criminal Court in respect of these crimes? Will the Government think of convening an international conference on the means of deterring the bombings, including the use of drones against aircraft used for that purpose?

[Baroness Northover]

As indicated by the previous question, the Government of Sudan have a clear obligation to co-operate with the International Criminal Court in terms of Security Council Resolution 1593 and have repeatedly failed to do so. We continue to make clear to the Government of Sudan that we expect compliance with the arrest warrants for the ICC indictees. The noble Lord mentioned further challenges and a possible new Security Council resolution. I must tell him that we think it is unlikely that that will be achievable at the moment, but obviously we take very seriously the reports that are coming through to us.

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd December 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Avebury]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what contribution the United Kingdom will make to the fourth replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

[Baroness Northover (LD)]

As World AIDS Day reminded us, we have made great strides in our fight against AIDS, malaria and TB, but more still needs to be done. In 2011, AIDS killed 1.7 million people and TB killed 1.4 million people. In 2010, malaria killed 660,000 people. That is why the UK has pledged £1 billion to the global fund, provided that our contribution does not exceed 10% of the replenishment value.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, it was great that DfID was able to say recently that it had met most of the targets that were forecast in the 2011 paper Towards Zero Infections. However, will the new contribution enable the global fund to reduce the number of new infections among women by half a million, as was scheduled in the 2011 paper, to make a step change in prevention and to reduce further the cost of treatment?

[Baroness Northover]

My noble friend is right that the international effort directed through the global fund has had stunning achievements. The rate of new HIV infections among women and girls has declined. The pace of the decline is not as fast as we would wish it to be and that is something that the UK is putting renewed effort into, as will the global fund. Clearly, the focus on prevention will particularly benefit women. There has been far greater coverage of the population as a result of the global fund’s efforts and stunning reductions in the cost of, for example, HIV treatment. In 2000, treating a patient cost about $10,000 a year and that has now dropped to $125 per patient.

Syria: Humanitarian Aid

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Monday 21st October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

I am very happy to meet representatives from Hand in Hand, and I note what David Nott said over the weekend about his experiences in Syria—the stories that he was reporting back were absolutely horrendous. The Government work very closely with a number of NGOs in this area and a range of organisations is working to try to get humanitarian aid in.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, I am sure the whole House will welcome the extra £100 million recently allocated to humanitarian aid to Syria by the Deputy Prime Minister. What additional efforts does the Minister think could be made to persuade our European Union colleagues at the Commission to match the efforts that we are already making? The UK’s £500 million contribution is by far the largest of any European Union nation. Can we not persuade our colleagues to match that?

[Baroness Northover]

Yes, the Deputy Prime Minister led the UK delegation to the UN General Assembly and I am very pleased indeed that we were able to pledge, as my noble friend has said, a further £100 million at the General Assembly, bringing us up to the level of £500 million and making us the second largest bilateral donor. The European Commission has contributed $1.2 billion since the beginning of the Syria crisis and we have been working across the EU to encourage all countries to contribute.

Violence Against Women

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Thursday 20th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

I am sure that the group that I mentioned earlier will be looking at exactly that.

[Lord Avebury]

Does my noble friend think that the leniency shown to Mr Saatchi when he half-strangled his wife set the wrong tone?

[Baroness Northover]

I cannot comment on a particular case. However, I am struck by the media reaction, which is really very interesting. I am struck by the support and sympathy for people who find themselves in such situations and by the fact that these problems go through every level of society.

Queen’s Speech

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Wednesday 15th May 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, I warmly echo the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, on the right of the Chagossians to return to their homeland, from which they were ejected many years ago in one of the most shameful episodes in British colonial history. I also join her in welcoming the review by the Government of their Chagos policy, which I hope will lead to the removal of this blot on our reputation.

Up to this point the Government have had an excellent record on international development and I am proud, with my noble friend Lady Northover, that we hit the target of 0.7% of GNI this year, as promised in the coalition programme for government. However, as several noble Lords have said, the Bill to enshrine this commitment in law, which is also in the programme, is not in the gracious Speech and it has been reported that the Prime Minister has dropped it entirely. That cannot be because of the pressure of other legislation, so it looks as though the Tories are laying the ground for cuts in spending after 2016 if they get the opportunity. I am sure that Liberal Democrats will note this breach of the coalition agreement.

Another Bill that has disappeared from the list is the one on the standard packaging of cigarettes. This would have been consistent with the proposed European directive to strengthen the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which was supported by your Lordships’ European Union Committee and strongly backed by Cancer Research UK but which is desirable independently as a means of deterring people from taking up smoking, as the director of health and well-being at Public Health England has advised. The opposition comes from the tobacco manufacturers and from Nigel Farage, who is apparently unconcerned that almost a quarter of a million young people between the ages of 11 and 15 take up smoking each year. One assumes that the Bill was axed in the panic over UKIP’s threat to the Tory vote even before the local elections.

Mr Cameron also pandered to the supposed dislike by the electorate of everything European in September last year by again attempting to placate the UKIPs and Tory crypto UKIPs when he announced during a visit to Brazil, rather than in the Commons, that the UK would opt out of some 130 EU pre-Lisbon justice and policing measures. The coalition agreement committed us to approaching legislation in the area of criminal justice on a case-by-case basis with a view to maximising our country’s security. There is no doubt whatever that European measures on corruption, drugs, pornography, terrorism, illegal migration, cyberattacks, organised crime and racism have enhanced our security, because these offences are all borderless.

Co-operation between law enforcement authorities across Europe is essential for investigations, the exchange of evidence and information and for the recovery of the proceeds of crime. We need institutions such as Europol and Eurojust to manage the links between the 27 member states, and we need the European arrest warrant to ensure that we do not get saddled with all the criminals in Europe. It is the height of folly to jeopardise all this as it is by no means certain that we can walk back into the measures that we like the day after leaving them.

We all agree that the European Union can be improved, but we do not improve our chances of contributing to that discussion by constantly threatening to leave it. What conceivable grounds are there for thinking that other member states would agree to renegotiate membership on more favourable terms for us—a point on which I agree with my noble friend Lord Lawson? There are more likely to be demands from other European countries for the annulment of the extraordinary rights that we already enjoy in the European Union.

Unsurprisingly, the word “Europe” does not appear anywhere in the gracious Speech, but there is no mention of the Commonwealth either, as several noble Lords have remarked. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary are both attending the CHOGM in Sri Lanka in November, as are the heads of all the other member states so far except Canada, as the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, mentioned. The Australians say that it is better to stay engaged because of the extra leverage that it gives us in the run-up to CHOGM, but how has that been illustrated? Amnesty International describes the systematic attack on dissent, including the impeachment of the chief justice without due process, her replacement by a close associate of President Rajapaksa, the blocking of BBC broadcasts, the arbitrary detention and disappearance of hundreds of government opponents and the targeting and removal of journalists such as the chief editor of the Sunday Leader, Frederica Jansz, after she had been threatened by the Defence Secretary in a foul-mouthed diatribe.

If the Commonwealth does have the influence that Australia believes it has, will the Government suggest to Sri Lanka that it issues an open invitation to the UN Special Procedures so that their advice on human rights issues can be considered before the CHOGM?

How can the Commonwealth encourage Bangladesh to uphold the fundamental values of the recently adopted charter, including democracy, human rights, the rule of law, the separation of powers, freedom of expression, good governance, tolerance, respect and understanding and the role of civil society? In Bangladesh, political objectives are pursued on the streets instead of in Parliament, most recently when Islamist mobs rioted in downtown Dhaka at the beginning of May in support of a 13-point list of demands that included the execution of atheist bloggers, a law against blasphemy and restrictions on women at work. These objectives are clearly incompatible with the Commonwealth charter, but at the same time security forces used disproportionate force against the Islamists, causing many deaths, and the Government closed down two TV channels that were reporting the mayhem.

Previously, huge demonstrations and counter- demonstrations had erupted over the death sentence passed by the war crimes tribunal against a person for offences committed in the liberation war of 1971. Those proceedings were not conducted in accordance with the rule of law and are the source of violent divisions in Bangladeshi society.

There are also gratuitous attacks on members of religious and ethnic minorities, particularly the indigenous inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Government have failed to implement the CHT accord of 1997, promised by Sheikh Hasina within the lifetime of this Parliament, and they no longer recognise the native inhabitants of the CHT as indigenous people. As co-chair of the international CHT Commission, I asked the Government to raise these matters in the Bangladesh universal periodic review, which has just taken place, and I would be grateful if the noble Lord who is to reply can tell me whether they did so.

Pakistan, too, in spite of the successful elections, warrants the attention of the Commonwealth. As the Commons International Development Committee says, it exhibits unstable politics, a large defence budget, historic levels of significant corruption, tax avoidance, and low levels of expenditure on education and health programmes, and its status is that of a middle-income country. Pakistan is the largest recipient of UK aid, but our aims of promoting peace and stability in the border areas, thus creating the conditions for achieving the MDGs there, have already failed. During the election, more than 100 candidates and election workers were murdered by Islamist terrorists. Over recent years there has been a crescendo of murders and massacres of religious minorities throughout Pakistan, which the international community cannot and must not ignore.

My noble friends Lord Ashdown and Lord King of Bridgwater both raised the issue of the global threat of Salafist terrorism against the Shia Muslim communities. This is nowhere more acute than in Pakistan. The movement is alternatively aimed at the creation of a universal caliphate based on a supposed model from the 7th century. Its activities will not be confined to Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Mali or Syria, and we ignore it at our peril. I regret that neither in the gracious Speech nor anywhere else in government policy do we see the prospect of a coherent strategy to combat this ideology.

India: Aid

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Wednesday 15th May 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

I thank the noble Lord for his tribute. The British Council will continue to be supported in India, and some of the programmes the noble Lord mentioned may well fall under that. DfID will continue to be in India. It will have a hub of expertise there and is working closely with the Indian Government on the nature of that. It will be giving technical support. I remember visiting India and seeing how DfID acted as a lever for access to other funds, such as the Global Fund, and a great deal can happen in that regard.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords—

[Lord Tugendhat]

My Lords, India has one of the most rapidly growing economies in the world—

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Hill of Oareford)]

My Lords, if I may suggest, my noble friend Lord Avebury was ready to go before, and then the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock. We will have some quick questions, and some quick answers from my noble friend, and we will get them both in.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, further to the Question of the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, what discussions has DfID had with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in India, and with the state governments in Bihal, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, about how they might be able to continue after 2015 with the projects that were undertaken by DfID, possibly with some transitional assistance from DfID? If it has not had these discussions, will it do so?

Poverty: Developing Countries

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Wednesday 27th June 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

My Lords, I think it is a very good thing that the Government are supporting—

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords—

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

We have not had a question from the Conservative Benches.

Sahel

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Thursday 9th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Lord is right: the fighting in the region has been exacerbated by the cash, weapons and soldiers that have come from Libya following the fall of Gaddafi, overlaying this humanitarian crisis and making it much more dangerous for people to be working in the area. It is therefore extremely important, as the United Nations analysed recently, that a vacuum is not created for others to come into. The international community is acutely aware of that and the AU is being given technical support.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, what response has there been to the appeal by the International Development Secretary to take steps in addition to those that have already been taken by the Government of this country and by the European Union to avert the possibility that 6.8 million people in the Sahel may starve? Are any steps being taken by the international community to bring to an end the conflict in northern Mali that has led to the displacement of some 50,000 people in an area where, according to the ICRC, there is a threat of a major crisis of food availability after a very poor rainy season?

[Baroness Northover]

The international community is acutely aware of all the problems right across the region. One of the lessons from west Africa has been, as the crises that have happened there and across the region generally have shown, that you have to pick up the early warning signs of increasing food prices as well as food shortages. The displacement of people from Libya, as I just mentioned, and problems spilling over from Nigeria contribute to this problem. I am pleased to say that the EU is very much taking a lead in this area. The meeting yesterday shows that there is a lot to be done but there are encouraging signs that actions are being taken.

Gaza

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Wednesday 8th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover]

I have been replying to the noble Lord on the issue of water so I am extremely well aware of the situation. We are very concerned about the situation in Gaza and it is a tragedy that people are living in such circumstances. Thirty-eight per cent of Gazans live in poverty, 66 per cent depend on food aid, and, indeed, 90 per cent of mains water is unfit to drink. We are pressing the Israeli authorities all the time to try to address these problems.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, last week representations about this were made even by the UN Secretary-General, which demonstrates once again the futility of all efforts by the international community to alleviate, let alone to resolve, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Can my noble friend tell the House what replies we have received to our repeated representations to the Israeli Government? In particular, will the Israelis facilitate the onward delivery of $1.5 million-worth of medical supplies which were landed in the port of Ashdod by a Turkish aid agency last Saturday?

[Baroness Northover]

My Lords, the important thing is to seek a political resolution. It is only following that that some of these problems will properly be addressed. My noble friend is right to highlight some of the problems that are occurring at the moment. We have to emphasise yet again that it is in Israel’s future interest to make sure that these problems are properly addressed and that it will never be secure while this situation continues.