Queen’s Speech

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, I join other noble Lords in expressing pleasure at the Government’s commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national product on development assistance starting next year. I do not share the concern that some of your Lordships have expressed at the fact that this is not in the legislation. I am pleased to accept the solid commitment that our Government have made, from which I do not think there is any possible chance of backsliding. We can wait for the legislation until some time later in this Parliament.

Our aid programme is one of the most cost-effective in the world, and as co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Global Action Against Childhood Pneumonia, I particularly congratulate the Government on being the largest contributor to the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation. I was delighted to hear the noble Lord, Lord Jay, on this subject. None of the money which we contribute to the GAVI Alliance goes into someone’s back pocket. That is one of the reasons why I applaud the Government’s decision to be the largest contributor to this project. I am very proud that we are helping to protect the lives of children, among others, in the Somali refugee camps of Dadaab in Kenya and Dolo Ado in Ethiopia, which together hold some 650,000 refugees.

My noble friend Lord Sheikh and Malcolm Bruce MP were in Bangladesh last year on World Pneumonia Day urging that country to press forward with its plans to vaccinate children against pneumonia and rotavirus, which together kill 1.5 million children every year. The noble Lord, Lord Boateng, was in Ghana only last month helping to celebrate the rollout of vaccines against both those diseases. Will the Government continue to respond to the GAVI Alliance’s appeals as new vaccines are developed, such as the two which have now been approved against HPV, the cause of cervical cancer that kills many hundreds of thousands of women every year?

The gracious Speech says that the Government will work to bring greater stability to the Horn of Africa, and the London Conference on Somalia in February was a great success, not least because it allowed for independent participation by Somaliland, which is already de facto a stable and democratic state with which I am glad to say the UK has close relations. I understand why the Government are not going to be the first to recognise Somaliland’s independence, but can we not encourage moves within IGAD and the AU towards regional and continental acceptance of Somaliland’s right of self-determination? I also welcome the EU’s helicopter operations against pirates, which have been mentioned, and I hope that now we have these assets off the coast of Somalia, we might consider, with the EU, also helping AMISOM, which has no helicopters, in the operation that I hope will take place to occupy Kismayo and deny that port to al-Shabaab.

I was glad to hear the Minister say that we will uphold human rights and religious freedom. With Pakistan’s universal periodic review coming up soon, I hope the Government will be taking a robust line on the failure to protect minorities in that country. The blasphemy laws bear harshly on Ahmadiyya Muslims. They are denied the right to vote, and the law brands them as non-Muslims. In the armed forces, or if they apply for a post at a university or in the civil service, they suffer discrimination, and there is a glass ceiling above which they will not get promotion, whatever their merits. Worse, there is a chorus of hate speech against Ahmadis from Salafist mosques and madrassahs, and from a perfectly lawful organisation, the Khatm-e-Nubuwwat. Regularly, members of the community are assassinated in cold blood or are arrested on trumped-up charges and gratuitously tortured and Ahmadi mosques are destroyed by terrorists. My noble friend says that we make frequent representations to Pakistan, but this does not work because the situation of Ahmadis and other religious minorities gets worse every year. Can we not consider more effective methods of bringing home to Pakistan and, for that matter, to Indonesia and other Islamic states, that religious pluralism and freedom are mandatory, not optional extras to other human rights?

Bangladesh has not been infected so badly with the virus of Salafism although it has periodic outbreaks of persecution. As co-chair of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, I am particularly concerned with the failure to implement the CHT peace accords of 1997 in accordance with the pledge in the Awami League manifesto, which has been repeated several times since the election by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The military remain present in the CHT in force, land grabs by settlers against indigenous people continue and violence against indigenous people is perpetrated with impunity. What can we and the European Union do to help Sheikh Hasina solve these problems, and particularly to sort out the dysfunctional land commission?

In Bahrain, after 15 months of bloodshed, torture, extrajudicial executions, and arbitrary detention of human rights activists, there is no sign of an Arab spring. The four leading human rights activists in the country are in custody, two of them awaiting retrial before a civilian court having already been tried before a military court and held, pending that trail, incommunicado for weeks and finally sentenced to life imprisonment. Yet Ministers were content to let the Formula 1 race go ahead amid the misery and mayhem. Worse, they advised Her Majesty the Queen to invite King Hamad, the hereditary dictator, to come here for the Jubilee celebrations. I realise that diplomatic requirements have compelled Her Majesty to meet some gross human rights violators over the 60 years of her reign, but is it not nauseating that in this Jubilee year she will have to shake the hand that is stained with the blood of dozens of the regime's victims? Let it be clear to those who believe in human rights and democracy that King Hamad is not welcome at the Jubilee celebrations.

Finally, on the Chagos Islands, the European court will soon declare on the admissibility of the islanders’ claim for the right of return to the outer islands. The Foreign Secretary was in favour of a “just and fair settlement” when he was in opposition, but now he says that the FCO’s policy is not to be changed until after the Strasbourg court gives its decision. Meanwhile, the judgment is expected imminently in the judicial review proceedings against the Foreign Office in regard to the marine protected area. Colin Roberts, then FCO director of overseas territories, told US embassy political counsellor Richard Mills on 12 May 2009 that,

“establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago’s former residents”.

According to the Government’s thinking on the reserve, as Mr Roberts put it,

“there would be ‘no .. Man Fridays’ on the BIOT’s uninhabited islands”.

This was the real reason for creating the MPA. I ask my noble friend whether the FCO’s position can be reviewed now that its motive has been exposed and whether it will now reconsider settling out of court rather than persisting with expensive trials on which it has already spent over £3 million—not counting the cost of the Civil Service and Treasury solicitors—in which its chances of success must be reduced?

Democratic Republic of Congo

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Tuesday 15th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

Yes, that is exactly the kind of proposal that Clare Short, as chair of the EITI, is examining in her strategic working group. Of course, not every company and certainly not every country has signed up to the EITI. Those that have are required to make certain reports, although those reports do not cover all the issues we are discussing now. Her idea, and that of the EITI, is to see whether the requirements for standards for signatories to the EITI can be increased and, obviously, for other countries—and the DRC being a candidate country—to sign up to the whole initiative.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, as I understood the Minister’s reply to my noble friend’s supplementary question, the rules of the EITI do not at present require candidate countries or full members to disclose accounts of the sales of mining assets. Will my noble friend press not only for sales to be disclosed but for countries that are candidates or full members to publish due diligence reports identifying the purchasers and verifying that they are fit and proper persons to comply with the EITI rules, and ensure that the rules are amended for that purpose?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

I repeat that this is exactly what the EITI initiative proposes. Incidentally, this body was set up in 2002 by the previous Government. It has been a considerable influence and success, although it has a long way to go in certain areas. These are just the sort of proposals for an extended authority of the EITI that will be considered by the strategic working group. That aim should certainly be supported by the Government and all Governments who are full members of the EITI now. We recognise the need also for candidates to be required to move to higher standards in order to become full members.

Maldives

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Thursday 22nd March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

Yes, but the position is not quite as the noble Lord described it. They did not fail at the Heads of Government meeting to reach agreement; in fact, they agreed on a whole range of reinforcement of the upholding of standards in the Commonwealth by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group and the new mandate for the secretary-general. The action in the Maldives is a welcome demonstration of what I hope is a much more active role to come. A whole range of other proposals put forward by the Eminent Persons Group is being discussed. The proposals have not been shelved. They are to be discussed by a ministerial task force and analysed further when Commonwealth Foreign Ministers meet in the autumn to take them forward. My hope is that a great many of them will be implemented. Some remain difficult, I fully agree, but generally, there is a huge surge in commitment throughout the Commonwealth to be a body that truly upholds its standards of democracy, human rights, good governance and the rule of law.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, has it now been agreed that the committee of national inquiry which has been formed to investigate the legality of the transfer of power in February should be reinforced by a person nominated by the United Nations? Secondly, will the CMAG at its meeting in April look into a plan B in the event of it being unable to persuade the parties that elections should be held before the end of the year?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

Both those propositions are really up to Sir Don McKinnon, the special envoy. He has been in the islands, in Male, in the past few days; I think he leaves today. He will be looking at precisely those points. Our hope and determination must be that elections are brought about. If they are not, of course we would have a new and more difficult situation that would require further resolution and effort. For the moment, we concentrate on following the plan which the Indians have so helpfully brokered.

Libya

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Monday 19th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

Policy-makers seek to learn at all times, but against the noble Lord’s experienced comment I must put the rival comment that circumstances differ enormously in different situations, events, times of history, and as a result of the different histories and past of the countries concerned. We faced in Libya a unique situation: a country that had been in tyranny, had visited terrible crimes on this country, and that was on the verge of further massacres. We should be glad of and applaud the courage of my right honourable friend the Prime Minister and other Ministers when they decided to support from the air the opposition in Libya at the time. It has brought a much happier Libya, as all the statistics show, and it has defied all the so-called experts, who a year ago said that nothing would work and that it would be a stalemate and a disaster. It is nothing of the kind.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, my noble friend said last July that the Tuaregs should be able to enjoy the full benefits of citizenship and that we had made representations to the transitional national council to this effect. What steps is the TNC now taking to confer citizenship not just on the Tuaregs but on other tribes who were deprived of documentation under the dictatorship, such as the Toubou, the Awlad Suleiman and the Shaama people? Have we also asked the TNC to amend as a matter of urgency Article 3 of the electoral law, which provides that voters must have held citizenship for at least 10 years? Otherwise, some 200,000 people may be deprived of the vote in the June elections.

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

We have already advised on the benefits of a democracy that allows full rights for voting for the Tuaregs and all Libyans; and we will continue to do so. As to the particular issue of Article 3, I cannot tell my noble friend whether we have raised that specific matter in dialogue with the Libyan Government, but I will seek to ensure that Article 3 is raised if it has not been already.

Middle East

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Friday 16th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to say a few words about the dire situation in Bahrain, which has been overshadowed by the crises in Syria and Palestine but which demands a proportionate share of the attention of Parliament and the Foreign Office.

Last February, disturbances erupted in Bahrain as the people tried to assert their democratic and human rights against the al-Khalifa hereditary dictatorship. The rulers brutally attacked demonstrators, arrested 1,300 people and tortured their leaders and others held incommunicado for weeks on end, killing five of them in custody, and all in a pattern of total impunity. They clamped down on freedom of expression, closing a major newspaper, blocking websites and blogs and dismissing hundreds of suspect dissidents from their jobs.

Faced with mounting international criticism, the dictator appointed the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, BICI, headed by the distinguished jurist Cherif Bassiouni, to report on the events of the uprising and its aftermath. BICI produced a 500-page report substantially confirming the allegations made by national and international human rights organisations. It made numerous recommendations, all of which, at the launch of the report, the King said that he accepted. He appointed a further commission to monitor implementation, due to report next Tuesday. The noble Lord, Lord Luce, gave the regime much credit for this process, which I see as merely an attempt to deflect and postpone the effects of the uprising.

Some of the most critical recommendations are being ignored. The convictions of political prisoners, who did not advocate violence, have not been reviewed, nor have their sentences been commuted. Victims of incommunicado detention and torture have not received compensation. Hassan Mushaima, secretary-general of the Haq Movement, is still serving a life sentence after weeks of incommunicado detention, torture and trial before a kangaroo court, and the same is true for Abduljalil al-Singace and Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, foremost human rights activists. All three have spoken several times at seminars on Bahrain that I have chaired in the Palace of Westminster and I have never heard them advocate violence. They are dedicated to the principle of peaceful change, difficult though it may be in a society where the dictatorship holds all the cards.

The official line peddled by the Foreign Minister, Khalid al-Khalifa, another scion of the ruling family, is that there are not any political prisoners. Will my noble friend ask Sir Nigel Rodley, one of the BICI commissioners, to confirm that the,

“fundamental principles of a fair trial, including prompt and full access to legal counsel and inadmissibility of coerced testimony, were not respected”,

in the trials of opinion leaders? Will my noble friend join with IFEX in the call to immediately and unconditionally release Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and all the other political prisoners, and will they further ask the regime to negotiate with them on compensation for their ordeals?

Sad to say, the lessons of the past year have not been learnt. The security forces still use excessive force against demonstrations, resulting in loss of life. Twenty-two year-old Fadhel al-Obaidi died last Saturday after he was hit on the head by a teargas canister and beaten, kicked and punched by security men as he fell to the ground; last week an infant, Yahya Yousif Ahmed, died because his mother had suffered no fewer than eight teargas attacks on the family home during her pregnancy; and a woman in her 70s, Sakeena Marhoon, died in hospital after repeated inhalation of toxic gases thrown by security forces into her home several times in recent weeks. Will the Foreign Office protest about the continued use of excessive force and, particularly, the use of lethal gases?

Trials are continuing, too, of students and staff from the University of Bahrain and of some of the 42 doctors originally convicted by the security court. The crackdown on freedom of expression continues. Reporters Without Borders says that Bahrain goes in for a remarkable array of repressive measures: technical, judicial and physical censorship methods; keeping the international media away; harassing human rights activists; arresting bloggers and netizens, one of whom died in detention; smearing and prosecuting free-speech activists; and disrupting communications, especially during major demonstrations. To avoid scrutiny, the regime has postponed a visit that had been agreed by the UN special rapporteur on torture. It has forced the cancellation of visits by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch by imposing unacceptable conditions on them and it has made it impossible for international journalists to carry out their normal newsgathering activities in the country.

Above all, there is no sign of the ruling family loosening their grip on power. Yes, there is a two-Chamber Assembly, but the Government are entirely nominated by the al-Khalifas, with all important Ministers drawn from within the family, including the Prime Minister—the King’s uncle—who has held the post for more than 40 years.

When my honourable friend Mr Alistair Burt visited Bahrain in December, he made it clear to all groups that they should,

“seize this moment for reconciliation and broader reform”.—[Official Report, 9/2/12; col. WA 98.]

How can that be when leaders of opinion are in prison and their followers are gassed and beaten by the al-Khalifas’ mercenaries from Pakistan and Syria? Will my noble friend condemn the policy of giving those mercenaries citizenship in a bid to alter the demography of the state? Will he urge the regime to allow that freedom of expression without which reform is a remote and unattainable aspiration? The cosy relationship that we cultivate with these dictators helps them to stay in power. It is time to reform our policy to give meaning to our professions of encouragement for democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Death Penalty

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Wednesday 7th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

The noble Lord is right that the number of executions in China is, to us, unpleasant, and we have campaigned constantly against the level. There are some signs of a positive response to our efforts and those of many other countries: China has reduced the number of crimes that carry the death penalty, from 68 to 55; and the supreme court has ordered lower courts to suspend death sentences on a number of occasions. We are urging China to set a timetable for ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. There is some anecdotal evidence—indeed, even visible evidence—that important policy-makers in China are beginning to push forward strong advice that standards in China should move towards those of the rest of the responsible civilised world.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords—

[Lord Anderson of Swansea]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, it is the custom that when a Labour person has asked the Question we then give other Benches an opportunity. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, was not trying to be difficult.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, what can we say to countries that prescribe the death penalty for offences such as adultery or apostasy? My noble friend will have noted the unlawful deportation by Malaysia of the writer Hamza Kashgari to Saudi Arabia, where he faces execution for something that he said on Twitter. Will the Government propose to the UN that states which execute people for apostasy should be made ineligible for membership of the Human Rights Council?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

We most certainly do not accept that apostasy should be criminalised let alone that it should attract the death penalty. We will certainly make appropriate representations both to the country concerned and in the right fora of the UN. Our efforts to restrict the use of the death penalty apply universally, regardless of the crime for which it is imposed. That includes imposing the death penalty only for the most serious offences—if it must be imposed at all—such as murder. Freedom of religious belief, and certainly apostasy, should not in our view in any way attract the death penalty.

Zimbabwe

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Monday 13th February 2012 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Lord Avebury]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what information they have on the progress being made towards the framing of a new constitution and preparations for elections in Zimbabwe.

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Howell of Guildford)]

My Lords, the Zimbabwe constitution process continues to move forward despite attempts to disrupt it at the end of 2011. We understand that a draft exists and expect a referendum between June and September 2012. The discussions facilitated by the Southern African Development Community on an election road map continue and will, when concluded, establish the necessary reforms that must be completed before polls can be held. We stand ready to support SADC in this process in any way we can.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, does my noble friend say, therefore, that the draft constitution will be published before the end of the year? What help have we offered either through the European Union or the Commonwealth to SADC to ensure that adequate electoral machinery is in place for the referendum on the draft constitution to take place in good time before the deadline for general elections in June next year?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

The constitution and its production is naturally a matter for the Government of Zimbabwe, but we hope that this will come forward. We certainly take the view that it would not make sense to have an election before the constitutional process. Although Mr Mugabe suggested that there should be an election in March 2012, we really do not think that would be a serious or realistic proposition. As for working with SADC, we and the EU want to work through it to develop the right conditions for fair and sensible polls and for proper monitoring. The Commonwealth and other organisations will be ready to accede to any request from SADC for that to happen. We are ready to help, but with SADC in the lead it is obviously for it to indicate at what point it wants our help, in which case that help will certainly be forthcoming.

Pakistan

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Thursday 1st December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

Yes, that is an extremely wise observation, and I think that Her Majesty’s Government would totally agree with it.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, I add my condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives in the tragic event last week. I ask the Minister whether consideration will be given to postponing the Bonn meeting to allow Pakistan to participate. Could its agenda perhaps be extended to cover discussion of the findings of the NATO inquiry into this tragedy, including an investigation into the allegations made by Major General Ishfaq Nadeem, that it was impossible for NATO not to have known that it was attacking Pakistani posts, and that NATO had ignored mutually agreed communications procedures?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

No, I do not think it would be right to seek postponement of the Bonn meeting which is coming up, and we urge Pakistan to join. I know that in its dismay at this whole event it has thought about not joining, and in a sense that is understandable. But one looks for second thoughts and hopes that Pakistan will join the meeting. It is not a meeting organised by or about NATO, it is about the whole future of Afghanistan. Pakistani involvement would be valuable and we strongly encourage it. We stick to the timetable that has been planned.

Colombia

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

I can assure the noble Baroness that the embassy meets regularly with representatives of indigenous communities and discusses these things. More specifically, as with other embassies, we encourage and expect British companies to respect human rights in the places where they do business. Both the UKTI and the Bogota embassy provide advice, including on prior consultation, for British companies to ensure that this happens. The embassy also has monitored very closely two particular companies where there were concerns, and I could certainly inform the noble Baroness, if she so wishes, at any time on the details of how they got on. But the answer broadly is that, yes, this is the way we wish to move and, although there are British interests in some of these companies, they have been under very close monitoring and pressure and there has been some improvement.

[Lord Avebury]

Is my noble friend aware that the UN special rapporteur on indigenous peoples said on 31 October at the Peace Brigades International conference in London that it was important to assist indigenous peoples to build their capacity for negotiation? Would DfID consider funding the training of indigenous peoples in Colombia to develop their skills and knowledge so they can negotiate effectively with political authorities and multinational companies so as to produce development agreements that protect and advance their interests?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

As I just told the noble Baroness, officials in our embassy meet regularly with indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. Additionally, the embassy is funding a project in Colombia aimed at developing the role of organisations in protecting the rights to the territories. We are also providing technical assistance to the Colombian Government to work towards effective implementation of the new land and victims law, which aims to return land to huge numbers of displaced people and compensate victims. We are also funding projects to support access to justice and protection of human rights defenders, and we will continue to provide support for the Colombian Government wherever possible.

Somalia

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Tuesday 8th November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

I have seen some but not all of the reports. We have also seen reports that there appears to be pressure to reject refugees and to run down the numbers in that location. We have urged the Kenyan authorities to continue allowing refugees in from Somalia. We recognise Kenya's huge generosity in hosting refugees, which it has done over many years, and we will continue to support these efforts in the coming months. We certainly urge Kenya not to forcibly return Somali refugees over the border. There are obviously major aspects of administration and provision, to which the noble Lord rightly alluded. We will continue to help with what is an enormous imposition and burden on Kenya at this difficult time.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, do I understand from what my noble friend said that the Government consider that Article 51 confers an unrestricted right of self-defence under the charter against aggression by a non-state actor? Or does my noble friend rather consider that if a resolution comes before the Security Council we should attempt to impose some restrictions on the extent to which Kenyan troops may occupy large areas of Somalia, and that they should be circumscribed in a similar manner to that which applied to the NATO invasion of Libya?

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

It has not yet come before the United Nations, and there is strong evidence at the United Nations that an interest in the matter is not encouraged. Indeed, there are indications that if a resolution were pressed it might lead to further validation in precisely the opposite direction to the one that the noble Lord indicated. Of course, Article 51 does not permit unrestricted self-defence; it requires a real sense of challenge to national security and that the necessary defence should be proportionate. That is very important. That is what the Kenyan authorities will need to establish to satisfy our criteria for support.