Iraq: Nimrud

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Thursday 12th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, we regret that event, which was part of a long dialogue between advanced countries and the Middle East. Saudi Arabia was deeply unhappy with it. As part of my preparation for this programme, I have just read a very interesting and depressing article on the links between authoritarian government in the Middle East and authoritarian behaviour in families across the Middle East. We are all beginning more and more to understand that raising the status of women is essential to moving towards more enlightened government and better social and economic development.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, is my noble friend aware that because of the Wahhabi doctrine, which the Saudi Arabians promote, they believe in the destruction of historic monuments, even those associated with the life of the Prophet? Will the Government remonstrate with the Saudi Arabians about the practice of destroying sites associated with the Prophet?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I am well aware that the strictest form of Salafism believes in the destruction of idols. There is a certain amount in the Old Testament about the destruction of idols, for those of us who remember those particular chapters. Unfortunately, these are part of the most ancient and crabbed versions of different religions. We argue with the Saudis about producing a much more enlightened version of Islam and encouraging that within their own country.

Sri Lanka: Presidential Elections

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Wednesday 14th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I cannot say that, but I certainly hope so.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister mentioned that President Sirisena has undertaken to conduct a domestic inquiry into the allegations of war crimes that were committed in the final stages of the conflict in 2009. Has anybody suggested to him that he should facilitate the inquiry which was launched by the United Nations Human Rights Council at a meeting last March? Will our Government encourage him to invite it to Sri Lanka and facilitate its work there?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, that has been the position of our Government for the past year. Of course, there are some sensitive issues of national sovereignty. The noble Lord may be aware that there are even some people in the United Kingdom who take objection to international organisations looking at human rights issues within this country.

CIA: Torture

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Tuesday 16th December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I take the noble Lord’s point and I encourage him to read the short 500-page executive summary of the US Senate committee’s report which has, from the summary of the summary that I have read, some rather shocking things in it. We very much hope that British officials were in no way associated with some of those actions.

[Lord Avebury]

How can my noble friend promise to address the claims of British complicity in acts of torture when those allegations have been redacted from the report, presumably at the request of the British Government themselves?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, the Government are clear that the question of the presence or participation of British officials in some of the acts that are alleged is one of the things that must be investigated.

Sri Lanka

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Monday 24th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

As the noble Lord is aware, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has just reported that he is not receiving the co-operation which he needs from the Sri Lankan Government.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, will the Government condemn the refusal of the Sri Lankan authorities to grant visas to the OHCHR team which was to investigate the atrocities committed in the final stages of the civil war by both the Government and the LTTE? Will the comprehensive report of that team, headed by Martti Ahtisaari, nevertheless be published in accordance with the mandate of the team at the 28th session of the Human Rights Council in March 2015?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, the UK was a sponsor of the resolution of the UN Human Rights Council. We are actively concerned in this issue. We are not at all happy about the refusal of the Sri Lankan authorities to co-operate with the attempts to have an external inquiry, because of our concerns that the internal inquiry’s recommendations have not yet been implemented.

Chilcot Inquiry

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Monday 3rd November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, the inquiry has cost £9 million so far. We estimate that by the time it is completed it will have cost £10 million. By comparison, the Savile inquiry cost £100 million.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, how far will the extra £1 million take us? Can my noble friend give an assurance that it will not be within the pre-election period before the next general election when silence is observed?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, that is the assurance that the Minister for Civil Society gave last week. We are all anxious that if it is not published by the end of February it would be inappropriate to publish it during the campaign period.

Afghanistan

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Thursday 30th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

I cannot entirely give that assurance. Afghanistan is not the only country in which the voices of women are not easy to get through, particularly when Governments are involved. I can think of a number of other Middle Eastern countries. I would simply remark that, at President Ghani’s inauguration, as noble Lords might know, his wife appeared for the first time as part of the inauguration. These are small but useful steps forward.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, further to the question of the noble Lord, Lord Ahmed, what action will my noble friend and the Government take to encourage joint action by the Governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan against the terrorists, who are a threat to both their countries?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, we are in regular and constant touch with the Pakistani Government precisely to encourage a constructive relationship with developments in Afghanistan. I am sure that my noble friend, like me, will be well aware of the very complicated relationships between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is part of the problem that we face.

South Sudan

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Monday 28th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, that is a problem not only for this conflict but for the Syrian conflict and the neighbours of Syria as well. The United Kingdom is the second-largest donor to South Sudan and those donations include assistance to refugees in surrounding countries. IGAD, the international action group, operates as a means through which all the neighbouring countries get together. I emphasise how serious the conflict is. It is estimated that perhaps 7 million out of the 10 million people in South Sudan may be short of food or under famine conditions by this time next year.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, I welcome the agreement between the parties that representatives of the people displaced by the conflict will take part in the peace talks. Will the representatives be selected by IGAD or by some other means, and if so, what will be the process? Will the talks to be started on Wednesday cover the details of how the transitional Government of national unity is to be established?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

IGAD is currently consulting outside the country with potential civil society representatives who will be included in these discussions. This will in no way be a beautiful or perfect set of arrangements. If we manage to achieve some sort of transitional Government of national unity, we will have done extremely well.

Ethnic Minorities: Ministers’ Statements

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Monday 3rd February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what advice they issue to Ministers about making public statements on allegations about the general behaviour of ethnic minorities.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, Ministers are expected to behave in a way which is consistent with the Ministerial Code.

[Lord Avebury (LD)]

My Lords, when Ministers, or officials on their behalf, refer to homeless Travellers as a blight on the community, or as having a negative impact on business, does this not reinforce local authorities’ failure to produce a five-year rolling programme, as required by the Government’s planning policy for Traveller sites? Will they desist from using pejorative language about Travellers and instead embody the PPTS in statute law, with a power for the Secretary of State to direct local authorities to grant permission for such a number of sites and caravans as he may specify, as already happens in Wales?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I think the noble Lord is referring to a DCLG press release of last summer which used the unfortunate term “blight”; the word was shortly afterwards removed and replaced by “problem”. In the previous survey of Travellers’ caravans, there were estimated to be 20,000, of which 15,000 were on authorised sites of one sort or another and another 5,000 were on non-authorised sites.

Human Rights: Burma

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Thursday 18th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I can confirm that the first thing that Aung San Suu Kyi asked the British Government to do was to appoint a defence attaché to Burma some months ago. We are now offering military training to a number of Burmese officers in this country to help them through the transition. Requests have also been made to assist in retraining the Burmese police. These are all things that we think will help through a transition—not, of course, towards full democracy and a perfect resolution of all these problems, but we see the situation as improving. We are doing our best not only to help it to improve but to monitor how far it goes.

[Lord Avebury]

When the noble Baroness, Lady Kinnock, raised the Human Rights Watch report on ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan state, she was told that it clearly needed to be supported by further evidence. What has happened to the independent investigative commission announced by the Burmese Government as long ago as last September? Is it going to be established in the near future? To ensure its credibility, will my noble friend suggest to the Burmese that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, be asked to nominate the members of that commission?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I will have to write to the noble Lord with a specific answer to his question, but I can confirm that Alan Duncan, from the Department for International Development, was in Rakhine state in June, that my noble friend Lady Warsi was looking at the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar shortly before that, and that British officials are very regularly in and out of Rakhine state.

Digital Strategy

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Monday 15th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, things are actually moving quite fast. This is not simply something that central government are attempting to impose. I am encouraged by how much is being done at the local level by voluntary organisations and by partnerships between the public and the private sectors. The assisted digital scheme is intended to pull a number of these together and make sure that they are encouraged to help precisely in those areas of the country where digital skills are least well developed. The speed at which people are moving over to digital as mobile smartphones expand is very rapid.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, I am sure my noble friend is aware that according to the Office for National Statistics, 3.8 million disabled people have never used the internet. How are those people going to claim universal credit when the applications have to be made online? If they all go to the centres that he mentioned, will they not be completely overwhelmed?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, that is precisely what the assisted digital and digital inclusion schemes are intended to deal with. They encourage people to learn how to use the internet themselves and, where they find it difficult to do so, to assist them and advise them on how to gain the access they need.

Sudan

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Wednesday 5th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they propose to take at the United Nations Security Council on the attacks by Sudanese armed forces on civilians in Blue Nile state.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, we are greatly concerned at the ongoing violence in Blue Nile state since hostilities started on 2 September. We continue to work closely with our international partners to push for an immediate cessation of hostilities, including through the UN Security Council, where we will again underline our concerns tomorrow, 6 October.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, President al-Bashir has launched a full-scale onslaught against the people in the area of Kurmuk using armour, artillery and helicopter gunships, and has refused UN offers of mediation, effectively tearing up the framework agreement on which the Security Council relied in its last resolution of 1997. Does my noble friend not agree that it is therefore necessary for the UN to adopt new measures to prevent this conflict escalating into a cross-border war between the peoples of north and south and to protect the people of the Blue Nile and South Kordofan from incipient genocide?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, there were several questions in there, but I think it would be premature to make such a strong statement on whether this is incipient genocide. We recognise that it has taken a very long time to negotiate an end to the conflict between South Sudan and Sudan and that it has left a number of unresolved conflicts in the border region in Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. We are extremely concerned that conflict has broken out in a violent form since Sudanese troops deposed the governor of Blue Nile province on 2 September. The noble Lord will be well aware that it is extremely difficult to arrange humanitarian access into the region or, indeed, for outsiders to discover exactly what is going on within the region, but we are doing our best.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

The statement that hundreds of thousands of southerners are locked into the north is part of the problem. The borders having been drawn, those who live north of the border are formally Sudanese and not South Sudanese. This is a very large and ethnically diverse country and it needs governing with a great deal more delicacy than a highly authoritarian centralised Government in Khartoum appear to wish for. One should certainly mention, among others who should be playing an active role, the Arab League. Qatar has been very helpful in attempting to provide a structure of negotiation in Darfur, unfortunately not involving all the rebel forces in Darfur. Britain is willing to work with all others—the Ethiopian Government, the Qatari Government, the Arab League, the Chinese as far as we can and the Russians, as far as we can again, to bring all pressures we can to stop this fighting.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, since the UN Security Council is meeting tomorrow in any case to consider the situation in Abyei, could my noble friend ask for this problem to be placed on the agenda so that it can at least consider the evidence that is available, such as the 25,000 refugees who have fled across the border into Ethiopia, the Satellite Sentinel project evidence concerning the movement of large forces on the ground, and the evidence that my noble friend Lady Cox talked about of people fleeing from the Blue Nile into the south?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I in no way underestimate the threats to personal safety across this large region. Members of the APPG for Sudan will know that there have also been stories of fairly large-scale conflict across South Sudan. Cattle-raiding now takes place in South Sudan with AK-47s as part of what is happening. There are some complicated issues, and it is certainly the case that the comprehensive peace agreement might break down. Her Majesty’s Government are well aware of that and we are talking with other Governments within the UN and other international contexts to see what help we can provide.

Iraq: Camp Ashraf

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Wednesday 27th April 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

Of course they have responsibilities, but this is in effect an extraterritorial enclave in Iraq and there are some very large issues. We accept as a Government that, in time, Camp Ashraf should close. The question is how that is negotiated with all sides.

[Lord Avebury]

My noble friend will be aware that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has called for a full, impartial and independent inquiry, which you are not going to get from the Iraqi Government. Will my noble friend therefore urge the Foreign Secretary to initiate a resolution in the UN Security Council calling on the Secretary-General to appoint such an inquiry and also demanding that the 1,000 Iraqi troops occupying a third of Camp Ashraf be immediately withdrawn?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, the fact that Iraqi troops are occupying a third of Camp Ashraf is itself evidence that Camp Ashraf is a very extensive area. As I understand it, that is part of the issue that the Iraqi Government are concerned with—they wish to reduce the area currently occupied by Camp Ashraf. The UN is actively engaged in this. I am told that UN mission members visit Camp Ashraf virtually every week.

Botswana: Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve

Debate between Lord Avebury and Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Monday 14th March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, I am not sure that the Government accept that the constitution has been consistently abused, but I welcome the noble Lord’s support for this ethnic minority and its culture, for his vigorous support for the international human rights regime and his insistence that human rights obligations limit state sovereignty. I also congratulate him on his support for the rule of law as a limiting factor on majoritarian democracy, and I am sure that he will hold true to all these principles in his approach to the EU Bill next week. I particularly welcome his reference to the ruling of the Botswana appeal court, which the Botswana Government have clearly accepted. As he will know, the court is, unusually, composed of foreign judges. The judgment is signed by two South African judges and one each from Ghana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, the last of whom is called McNally. I am glad that the noble Lord recognises that foreign judges can reinforce domestic standards of human rights.

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, can my noble friend confirm that the Government of Botswana have already sent a team into the CKGR in pursuance of their undertaking to facilitate the return of the Bushmen? Can he also say whether there is any prospect of employment for the Bushmen in enterprises being set up in the reserve, such as the $3.5 billion diamond mine at which, given suitable training, they might be employed?

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

My Lords, my noble friend will recognise how difficult it is to combine maintaining the traditional hunter-gatherer way of life with economic development. The report of the UN special rapporteur on human rights for minorities talks about,

“economic and other development activities that align with the culture of the targeted communities, including hunting and gathering activities”.

The problem here is that once you start talking about education, medical assistance et cetera, you are moving away from traditional culture.