UK National Plan on Women, Peace and Security

Baroness Corston Excerpts

Monday 14th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warsi]

My Lords, it is a fact that women and children suffer most in conflict regions, and, of course, Gaza is no exception. I am sure that a number of noble Lords will be interested in and concerned about the situation as it unfolds in Gaza. I will therefore be repeating a Statement later today that the Foreign Secretary will make in about an hour’s time in the Commons.

[Baroness Corston (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister tell the House what proposals the Government have for supporting women and human rights defenders in Afghanistan when British troops leave—the women who run the girls’ schools and women gynaecologists who do surgery on female victims of sexual assault? Such women have had their sons abducted and murdered. Surely we cannot leave them to the fate of the Taliban.

[Baroness Warsi]

This is an incredibly important area. I am sure that the noble Baroness met with Samira Hamidi, Parwin Wafa and Dr Dida Pighla last month when they visited, these incredibly inspirational human rights defenders in Afghanistan. As the noble Baroness will be aware, Amnesty International has now raised this issue on a number of occasions. I have commissioned a specific piece of work, and it is apparent from the initial research papers that I am getting back that there is a lot of support for human rights defenders, and specifically women’s human rights defenders, in Afghanistan, but there is also a real problem in relation to these women being aware of the support that is available. There is certainly some work that needs to be done to bring that work together. Some clearer work needs to be done on signposting and possibly on having an arm’s-length body that would take some of this work forward. However, I will certainly keep the noble Baroness updated. This is something that I am acutely aware of.