Jo Cox Civility Commission
Baroness Goudie Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Goudie (Lab)
My Lords, I would like to pay my respects to Jo Cox’s family and all her friends. I thank my noble friend Lady Royall for arranging to have this debate today and the work of the Jo Cox Foundation, because without the work that it has been doing, we would not be here today, communities would not be in the situation they are in, and we would not be training women to come into public life. More and more we need to do this, and more and more we need to work with schools and other institutions so that young people know, like the Girl Guides and others, that every door is open to them—and I mean every door is open to them.
I was lucky to be brought up being told that every door was open to me, but not everybody has that opportunity. They might be bullied in every way: being bullied at school, being bullied at work, being bullied somewhere. When somebody is bullied, they go into their house, they go into a room and they never come out of it again. That is where we have all these problems, in many ways, in the community. It is part of our role to stop that happening.
I first met Jo when she was working at Oxfam and then, when she came to the House of Commons and I was here, she introduced me to the work they were doing on Syria and the White Helmets, on which we worked together. I still work with them, but we miss Jo deeply. I also went, just after Jo died, to Trafalgar Square when we had a memorial outside and I brought home, as my noble friend Lady Royall has seen, one of the placards that we had that day. I brought it home, got it cleaned and had it framed. I have that on my desk, and it reminds me every day about what we should be doing and why we should be doing it.
It is so important to ensure that women, who make up 50.7% of our population in this country, are in public life. What percentage of them are not in public life because they are not persuaded to be there or, when they have thought about it, they are told it is not for them, or they try and they are bullied? We have to insist that women are selected at every level. Otherwise, we will not have the right form of communities, and their children will not do this either. For example, there should be more women magistrates. There is a big shortage of magistrates, and women and young girls should be taught about the magistrate system so that in later life they apply to be trained.
The situation for MPs, councillors and other people in public life has now gone beyond the question of being bullied due to the rhetoric that we are seeing outside. We have not taken it seriously enough, and we now have to take it seriously. If necessary, as the Jo Cox Foundation has said, we have to pass stronger legislation. Councillors should not have stuff thrown at their doors, eggs thrown at their cars, their children interfered with or taunted at school and university, and so on. It is vital that we follow the recommendations of the recent report by the Jo Cox Foundation and More in Common, because we want a society that is together and is going to thrive. If we do not thrive, our country will not thrive.
That is why it is important too that we encourage women in public life to apply to be on boards at every level, whether it is at local or international level. We need to take men with us as well. This is about men and women working together in communities to stop what we have been seeing over the last couple of years, including what we are seeing in the media and on the web. It is disgraceful, and we must do everything we can to stop it happening. This abuse must cease. Thank you again for having this debate on the report; we must continue to build on it and to have further reports.
Local Councillors: Recruitment, Retention and Well-being
Baroness Goudie Excerpts(1 month, 4 weeks ago)
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Baroness Goudie (Lab)
My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Forbes for ensuring that we have this very important debate, at a time when so many councillors are seriously at risk. I am sorry to say that not many police forces really understand what is happening, particularly to women.
I will address a subject that both speaks directly to my own political beginnings and represents the core of our democracy. In the 1970s, I began my own public career in local government, as the youngest woman elected for the London Borough of Brent. During my years on the council, we worked to advance the important campaign for a housing aid centre and a law centre, and we founded a housing association for the borough. That opportunity changed the course of my career and my life and taught me that local councils are not the places to administer, as they are often perceived to be, but where we learn how to serve our communities and improve the daily lives of the families in them. As it was for many other women and me, as well as other people generally underrepresented in public life, the local council was the first door to go to.
At that time, local councillors were respected. That is no longer the case today. This has been brought about by awful people who hide away behind social media, letters and so on. It is a disgrace. That is why this issue matters so deeply and why everyone in government, no matter their party affiliation, has an interest in ensuring that becoming a councillor remains an appealing and possible career choice for capable, diverse and public-oriented people. If abuse and intimidation make that career path seem unsafe, we will lose good councillors before they even consider standing for election. We know that through various networks, as my noble friend Lady Royall said.
The Local Government Association’s 2025 survey found that almost three-quarters of councillors—73%—reported feeling personally at risk in the previous 12 months. A quarter had experienced a threat of violence or death against themselves or someone close to them. These are not the minor discomforts of public life; they are serious and harmful, affecting well-being, family life and the capacity of elected representatives to do their jobs.
I particularly want to address the impact on women. The same survey found that 84% of women councillors reported being personally at risk, compared to 73% overall. Women are most likely to report abuse and intimidation, and the figure of 78% should concern every part of the Chamber. If women are driven away from local politics, local government, the vehicle through which we carry on many fundamental services, becomes less representative.
Children: Impact of International Conflict
Baroness Goudie Excerpts(1 year, 10 months ago)
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Baroness Goudie (Lab)
My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, for arranging this important debate at a time when it is absolutely vital that this is discussed, not only here but in other parts of the world. I declare my interest as an adviser and ambassador for the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and other organisations around the institute.
Allow me to take the House back 28 years to when the UN commissioned Graça Machel, Mozambique’s first post-independence Minister for Education and a staunch advocate for children’s rights, to conduct a landmark investigation into the impact of war on children. The findings, presented in what we now call the Machel report of 1996, vividly depicted the brutal reality of children in conflict zones. It reminds us of the truth that we must never forget: children are the primary victims of war, and their protection should be central to the international human rights and peacebuilding agendas. The report has a clarion call for urgent action.
In the years that followed, many of Machel’s recommendations were adopted with determination, including the appointment of a special representative for children in armed conflict. But despite these efforts, as Save the Children’s work has highlighted, the situation for children has deteriorated significantly. Today, an alarming 468 million children are living in conflict areas and zones, double the number in 1990. The number of grave violations against children has almost tripled since 2010.
I wish to focus on one of the most horrendous of these violations: conflict-related sexual violence against children. Save the Children’s 2021 report, Weapon of War: Sexual Violence Against Children in Conflict, revealed that in 2019 31% of children lived in conflict-affected countries where at least one armed group committed sexual violence. This number is likely to increase with the rise in global violence. In 1990, 8.5 million children lived within 50 kilometres of sexual violence cases, but by 2019, this figure had skyrocketed to 72 million. Armed groups are deliberately targeting children with sexual violence to terrorise, intimidate and achieve political or military objectives, including ethnic displacement and humiliation. This is a catastrophic violation of children’s rights and a threat to entire communities and the world.
The implications of sexual violence against children extend far beyond the immediate trauma. Those children face lifelong consequences including health challenges, disruption to education and social fragmentation. As they grow into adults, they will carry the scars of their experiences. We must not underestimate the impact this will have on their capacity to rebuild. Given this, and that we are a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and UN Security Council Resolution 1612, what steps are being taken by the Government to ensure accountability for crimes against children in armed conflict, both on the international stage and within national frameworks?