Impact of Conflict on Women and Girls

Anneliese Dodds Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Development (Anneliese Dodds)]

It is a real pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Betts. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald) for securing this incredibly important debate on the impact of conflict on women and girls. I was grateful to my hon. Friend for her very powerful speech, and we have heard so many incredibly powerful speeches today. I echo the comments by the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) that this is an issue on which we can and must come together, and certainly today we did come together across five parties, as was mentioned. I was really pleased to see that.

As so many have mentioned, this is an incredibly timely debate. Conflict today is at the highest level since world war two. Women and girls are affected disproportionately, and we have heard so many examples today. The number of UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence increased by 50% in 2023, as was mentioned, and not a single peace agreement reached in 2023 included a women’s representative or representative group as a signatory. There are not sufficient women at those tables. The UN Secretary-General’s 2023 report highlighted that 172 human rights defenders who are women were subjected to reprisals for no other reason than that they engaged with the United Nations. Those are sobering and concerning statistics, and we heard many others.

It is 25 years since the UK played an important part in securing the landmark UN Security Council resolution 1325, as mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North. Thirty years have also passed since the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe met in Beijing to agree a central set of international norms on women’s rights and gender equality. Those are two significant milestones that should provide an opportunity for us to celebrate hard-won gains, but overall we are going backwards internationally.

The new UK Government will continue to build on the ambition of the fifth UK women, peace and security national action plan; I am delighted to underline that to the shadow Minister, the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton). This Government are determined to work in partnership with others around the world, not least the civil society groups and women peacebuilders, who have key roles to play and are working on the frontline in their communities.

At the United Nations General Assembly last September, the Prime Minister gave a clear commitment to work together for peace, progress and equality. It is clear that women and girls must be at the heart of that work and at the heart of our development policy—I completely agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North on that. I say to my hon. Friend the Member for South East Cornwall (Anna Gelderd) that they also need to be at the heart of our work in relation to the climate crisis, and we ensured that was the case in our representation at COP.

Empowering women and girls is clearly vital. I was pleased to hear a number of Members refer to the role of my noble friend, Lord Collins, who has been appointed as the Prime Minister’s special representative on preventing sexual violence in conflict. As the Minister for International Development and for Women and Equalities, I am determined that the UK does all it can to prevent and resolve conflict and empower women, who are vital to sustainable and inclusive outcomes from conflict situations. My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson) made that point powerfully in relation to Myanmar, and it was also raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan).

We are determined to ensure that women are involved in peacebuilding, not just because of the moral case but, as was spelled out by the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin), because of the clear empirical case. When women are involved in peacebuilding in a genuine and significant way, those peace deals tend to stick far more than when they are cut out of the process. When I was in Addis Ababa, I was delighted to meet a number of incredible women from Sudan representing civil society; they must be part of that country’s future and of the peaceful resolution of the appalling conflict there.

We believe that we can make a difference as the UK, in the same way that the incredible women mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) have made a difference—it was wonderful to hear what they had done. First, we must ensure that we listen to women’s voices on the ground and amplify them. That is a core commitment of the new Government. My hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North asked about our approach to focus countries. That approach has been incredibly powerful to ensure that we are driving targeting. As the Minister for International Development, however, I am aware that conflict-related sexual violence is, disturbingly, becoming much more of a feature of conflicts around the world. We need to ensure we are flexible enough on this issue, and that is what I am determined to do as the new Minister.

We also need to ensure that there is participation in peace processes, and that it applies whether we are talking about formal or informal mechanisms. That includes, for example, in Nigeria and South Sudan. We also need to ensure that women’s voices are raised when it comes to the impact of conflict-related sexual violence. My hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North mentioned DRC. We have been supporting women subjected to CRSV there; their voices need to be heard on those appalling crimes.

Through the UK’s £33 million partnership with the Equality Fund, we have supported more than 1,000 women’s rights organisations, including in conflict settings. We need to ensure that those voices are heard when it comes to issues such as child marriage, which the hon. Member for Strangford mentioned. Girls in South Sudan and Zambia told me about their concerns about early marriage and pregnancy. The new Government are determined to ensure that their voices are heard.

Secondly, we need to ensure that the needs of women and girls are prioritised in the current crises. When I was in South Sudan, I witnessed at first hand the desperate situation of women and girls affected by that conflict. In a debate in the main Chamber, we went through what the Government are doing in Sudan. The UK has been taking action in relation to women and on the appalling atrocities we have seen—the hon. Member for Esher and Walton (Monica Harding) said she is very concerned about that—and working intensively with other countries. We secured the renewal of the UN fact-finding mission on Sudan. I was pleased that other African countries supported that—that was incredibly important. Of course, it was awful that Russia vetoed the UN Security Council resolution on Sudan, which we submitted jointly with Sierra Leone. We will keep pushing on this issue, and we will ensure that in the provision of aid we act against sexual violence and support survivors. That has been the case with the UK’s support for refugees based in Chad, and we will continue to focus on that.

On Syria, we have underlined the importance of an inclusive transitional process to protect the rights of all Syrians, including women and girls, and prevent further instability. Through the Global Survivors Fund, we have provided medical, psychosocial, legal and financial support to more than 800 Syrian survivors of sexual violence in Turkey.

The right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills rightly mentioned the UNFPA. We are absolutely continuing to support its incredibly important mission.

[Jim Shannon]

I thank the Minister for her excellent response. Some of the stories that have come out of Syria since the Assads lost power have been to do with Christians, including those on the frontline. Christian religious views have been targeted—for example, Christmas trees have been burned. Has the Government had a chance to talk to the authorities about their role in protecting those of a Christian faith and other ethnic faiths in Syria, and particularly women, who are often at the forefront of what is taking place?

[Anneliese Dodds]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that issue. The UK Government have raised it at an official level. It is incredibly important that the future process includes different religious and ethnic groups and women. That point has definitely been made. The voices of Syrians who have been through so much must be heard.

When I was in Jordan, I met Syrian refugees—women who had fled from Syria into Jordan. I also met a number of girls being supported by the UK to access the education that they might not otherwise have had, and we are of course working with the Jordanian Government on that. It is clear that those women and girls have to be part of the future of their country. That is in line with the new Government’s determination to support women’s organisations, including those representing women with disabilities. We are being very thorough about that.

A number of Members talked about Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Gaza was mentioned by my hon. Friends the Members for Aylesbury (Laura Kyrke-Smith), for Glasgow West, for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson), for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) and for Bathgate and Linlithgow, and by the hon. Member for Esher and Walton. We are also deeply concerned about the healthcare situation in Gaza, including for women and girls, and indeed for men and boys. I have seen that for myself. When I was in Jordan, I saw medical supplies that should have been in Gaza but had not been allowed to pass in. The Government have repeatedly pushed the Israeli Government on that. We have raised this continuously, bilaterally and multilaterally. There must be access for all the humanitarian supplies that are needed, and that must include medical supplies.

UK aid has been going to support women, particularly around sanitation, menstruation and pregnancy. I have discussed this directly with bodies such as UK-Med and others. It is appalling to see the deeply concerning reports about the treatment of Palestinian detainees. Detainees must be treated in line with international law, there must be access for the ICRC, and reports of sexual violence must be investigated.

The impact of conflict-related sexual violence on Israelis was raised by my hon. Friends the Members for Washington and Gateshead South and for Milton Keynes Central, and others. I know that this issue is causing incredible pain and anguish to the families of hostages, having spoken with some of them in Tel Aviv. They are deeply concerned, understandably, about the situation for their family members. That is yet another reason why the hostages must be released, we must have a ceasefire, and we must see that surge of aid into Gaza.

My hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North asked some questions about Afghanistan. As the Foreign Secretary has said, the Taliban’s further oppression of women through its so-called vice and virtue law is appalling. Many Members rightly raised the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan during the debate. My hon. Friend asked specifically about gender apartheid. We are aware of calls for the inclusion of gender apartheid as a new crime against humanity, and we are actively considering the legal and policy questions raised by the proposed new crime.

My hon. Friend asked for more details about what we are doing; well, we continue to condemn the Taliban’s action against women and girls, and did so most recently in a December G7+ joint statement. We have already said that as a new Government we support the initiative to hold the Taliban to account for their violations of the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, or CEDAW. I am pleased that I can report today that we will formally join the list of countries that have announced their political support for the initiative. I hope Members will welcome that.

The Government are committed to preventing conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls, particularly in instances of trafficking. In relation to Ukraine, we heard some really disturbing details during the debate. We provided up to £10.7 million to support projects aimed at building Ukraine’s capacity for the domestic investigation and prosecution of war crimes, including conflict-related sexual violence. On the issue of capacity, which was raised by the shadow Minister, a member of the PSVI team of experts has been deployed to Ukraine to support Ukrainian authorities in the investigation and prosecution of conflict-related sexual violence in a survivor-centred manner. It is really important to have that expert input, which we are supporting.

On the broader of issue of preventing sexual violence in conflict, in November, Lord Collins visited Colombia in his first official engagement as the Prime Minister’s special representative. He led the UK’s delegation to the high-level meeting of the international alliance on PSVI. I was pleased to hear the shadow Minister talk about the initiative from 2023. We very much support that agenda and are determined to enhance it. She asked about our plans to do so; when Lord Collins was in Bogotá, he called for greater international action in response to the increased rates of conflict-related sexual violence around the world. To respond to my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury, that includes determination to use sanctions where necessary against the perpetrators of these vile crimes.

We know that all forms of gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence, are preventable. That is why I am pleased that we have committed a further £18 million to the UN trust fund to end violence against women, as well as providing training on sexual exploitation and abuse for more than 2,000 peacekeeping personnel in the last financial year, through the British peace support team in Africa. My hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central, who is not in her place—

[Emily Darlington]

I am back now.

[Anneliese Dodds]

Oh, she has come back—excellent. She was right to raise that matter.

This has been a challenging afternoon for many because we have also had a debate on violence against women and girls in the Chamber, so I know that many have been shuttling between the two. I will briefly also mention that, during the 16 days of activism against violence against women, I announced three new partnerships with women’s rights organisations in Kenya and South Africa to develop new preventive strategies.

Our commitment to halve violence against women and girls within a decade and our work with international partners to empower women globally are critical. We have talked today about how an unprecedented profusion of conflict is having a devastating impact for so many women and girls around the world, so I underscore this Government’s unwavering commitment to changing that, and to ensuring that, to reuse the quote rightly mentioned by the hon. Member for North Herefordshire (Ellie Chowns), “Shame must change sides”. It should be the perpetrators who are feeling that shame, who are feeling the accountability and, above all, who are deterred from that behaviour in the first place. We are determined to work in partnership with Members across this House, with key international and multilateral partners, with civil society and, most importantly, with women and girls affected on the ground.