Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and International Committee of the Red Cross (Status) Bill [HL]

Baroness Northover Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 29th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover (LD)]

My Lords, I also welcome the Minister to her position. I think that she may be focusing on Latin America—she is nodding. Our engagement there is vital if we are going to combat climate change, and I look forward to further engagement with her on that. I also want to take this as my first opportunity to thank the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, for all his work and his inclusive approach to those in the Opposition. He was always willing to respond to messages in relation to the numerous conflicts and challenges that have arisen in foreign affairs. I also came to realise on Zoom during Covid what the noble Lord’s attire must be when his young son came into the background, duly wearing a white shirt, tie and jacket just like his dad, and swimming shorts—just like his dad no doubt, just unseen.

It has also been excellent to work with the noble Lord, Lord Collins, who has made his party’s support for this Bill very clear. I am impressed that Labour has moved so fast in reintroducing this Bill as a Government Bill, and I commend it for that. As we have heard, this Bill started as a Private Member’s Bill introduced by Maria Miller in the other place; the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, introduced it into this House in May, and I commend them for their efforts. The Bill’s aim is to treat the CPA and the ICRC in a comparable manner to international organisations of which the UK is a member. The Minister and others have laid out why that needs to be done, and its implications. They have pointed out that the ICRC and the CPA would not otherwise be considered as international organisations because they are not intergovernmental, hence the gap.

As we all know, the ICRC is impartial, with an exclusively humanitarian mission. It engages all parties to conflicts and assists vulnerable groups in conflict situations, and its independence and confidentiality are essential for its effectiveness. Unfortunately, with global crises as they are, it has much work to do in the most difficult circumstances. So we support its promotion and implementation of international humanitarian law, which has been seriously under threat. Trying to ensure that there are international rules and that they are respected is absolutely vital.

As my noble friend Lord Purvis and others have noted, it is surprising that we have not agreed these provisions in the Bill before. The Explanatory Notes state that over 110 states have already done so, including all the other permanent members of the UN Security Council, so we obviously need to catch up.

As we are all aware, and as others have said, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association seeks to build and strengthen support for parliamentary democracy. As the noble Lord, Lord Howell, has just said, so much of the future is with the young people of the Commonwealth. It wishes to have the freedom to undertake wider activities in promoting democracy and protecting the values and principles set out in the Commonwealth charter.

At the moment, the CPA operates as a UK-registered charity regulated by UK charitable law. Prior to the coalition, I was vice-chair of the CPA and, like many noble Lords and Members of the other place, I have benefited from engagement with parliamentarians across the world through the CPA and the IPU. We learn a great deal from each other. I recall in particular a visit to Pakistan led by the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, where we met women parliamentarians from right across the political spectrum. Led by their Speaker, a woman, they had worked deep into their own parties and with brave survivors to help criminalise the awful practice of acid attacks. This showed that it was possible to work together, even across political divides and cultures, for such outcomes. We parliamentarians from the UK stood in awe of what had been achieved by our fellow parliamentarians. This kind of engagement assists all parliamentarians.

The Bill will enable the Government to treat the CPA and the ICRC in a way that is comparable to other international organisations, such as the IPU under Swiss law. As others have said, these organisations help to uphold international law and democracy, and they are badly needed. I therefore welcome the Bill and lend it the support of these Benches.