International Development (Gender Equality) Bill

Baroness Hussein-Ece Excerpts

Friday 7th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord McColl, for introducing this Bill to your Lordships’ House. I welcome and support this Bill. It is a subject I have spoken about on numerous occasions, as have many other noble Lords.

I am very pleased that gender equality and the empowerment of women are seen as essential for both the elimination of world poverty and the upholding of human rights. Supporting all efforts to achieve gender equality must be at the centre of the United Kingdom’s international development programmes. I know how much is already being done, which is why I particularly welcome the Bill.

We know that violence against women and girls is endemic in conflict areas and that its consequences are devastating and long-lasting, for not just the individual but the entire community. Sexual violence is not just a by-product of war, it is often a strategy of combat used systematically to terrorise and humiliate. This is a key element that needs urgent attention and vigilance.

Women and girls must be supported in all key areas in creating a positive and enabling environment for them. This can happen in a range of areas, such as: giving them a voice and accountability in terms of maternal mortality; gender violence, as I have mentioned; education, which is so key; conflict and post-conflict reconstruction; HIV and AIDS; and, of course, migration.

Giving women a voice and supporting women’s participation in national and local decision-making in promoting leadership are also essential. Supporting women in this way ensures that not just the women and their families but whole villages and whole areas are empowered. Women are given a voice where they have not had one in the past and have been silenced in the most horrific way.

I do not plan to speak for too long but I will turn to the women of Afghanistan, which is a subject that I have been particularly involved in and exercised about. We in the United Kingdom have a significant responsibility here. Afghanistan has been named the worst place in the world to be a woman, and it does not seem to be getting any better. Just a few days ago it was reported that a new Afghan law would allow men to attack their wives, daughters and sisters without fear of judicial punishment, undoing years of slow progress in tackling violence in a country that has been blighted by so-called honour killings, forced marriage and very vicious domestic abuse. The so-called honour killings by fathers and brothers who disapprove of women’s behaviour would be almost impossible to punish if this proposed law was enacted. This is shocking and unacceptable. It will make it impossible to prosecute cases of violence against women. The most vulnerable people will not get justice.

After all the years of conflict, war and the billions spent by the UK and other countries on this war, which was intended initially—if we cast our minds back—to free Afghan women from the violence meted out to them by the Taliban, it seems inconceivable that we can watch from the sidelines while this happens.

Countries that spent billions trying to improve justice and human rights are now focused largely on security and are retreating from Afghan politics. It is precisely for this reason that we need to commit that all future aid funds for these women are used to promote and protect women’s rights and education.

Human Rights Watch has said:

“Opponents of women's rights have been emboldened in the last year. They can see an opportunity right now to begin reversing women’s rights—no need to wait for 2015. The lack of response from donors has energised them further. Everyone has known since May that this law could be passed but we didn’t hear any donors speaking out about it publicly”.

This must not prevail. It would be a betrayal of these women.

Last year, I met a group of Afghan women MPs who were visiting our Parliament. I and others were struck by how brave these women were, facing threats daily just to be able to carry out their duties as Members of Parliament—threats that we could not possibly imagine here in the West. They were most concerned that once the troops withdrew this year they would be left even more vulnerable than they previously were. They were acutely aware of, and vocal on, how aid and progress made on, for example, girls’ education could so easily be dismantled. They all made a strong plea with us: that we ask the Government to ensure that funds for Afghan women be protected and be given specifically to the agencies which work with women, and not be allowed to be channelled through the Afghan Government, who we have seen are not reliable on these matters at the best of times.

I note the Secretary of State’s annual report on how effective aid has been in the pursuit of millennium development goal 3—to promote gender equality and empower women. The evidence for the need for this Bill is overwhelming. I again congratulate its initiator, Bill Cash MP, and we on these Benches fully support it.