UK Aid to Afghanistan

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts

Wednesday 11th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

My Lords, we regularly press the Taliban on a wide range of human rights issues, including the rights of women and girls. Our view is that educated, empowered women are critical to economic development, peace and stability right across the country, and that without them the country will not achieve stability or prosperity. We continue to work with the international community, including the G7, the G20 and various UN bodies, to press the Taliban to reverse their decision and to try to understand the implications of the recent ban, particularly in relation to women and girls working in NGOs, to try to ascertain the best possible mechanisms we can use to support those NGOs to continue their work.

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My Lords, it is deeply concerning to read in ICAI’s report that £252 million of ODA money was spent supporting “torture and extrajudicial killings”. Given that there are claims that attempts to halt this were overruled at the highest levels of government, can the Minister confirm exactly who intervened and on what grounds, whether human rights abuses were raised and whether civil servants were overruled in this situation?

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

My Lords, the second recommendation of the ICAI report relates to the point the noble Lord made. It was that UK aid should not be used to fund police or other security agencies to engage in paramilitary operations

“as this entails … risks of doing harm. Any support for civilian security agencies should focus on providing security and justice to the public.”

We accept that recommendation in full. It is worth again putting on the record that UK ODA funding in Afghanistan has never paid for paramilitary operations.