Commonwealth Day

Debate between David Lidington and Pamela Nash

Thursday 13th March 2014 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Europe (Mr David Lidington)]

First, I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Saffron Walden (Sir Alan Haselhurst) on securing this timely debate on the Commonwealth. I am sure I have the support of the whole House when I pay tribute to his tireless work in his three-year tenure as chairman of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association executive committee. I hope that he will take it in the right spirit when I say that that is one of the great achievements and services he has given Parliament in what I believe is his 35th year of service in the House.

The CPA, as my right hon. Friend has described, makes a valuable and concrete contribution to promoting democratic values throughout the Commonwealth and we should applaud its achievements. I would also like to thank all my hon. Friends and the Opposition Members who have spoken today and outlined eloquently their views on the Commonwealth: both its strengths and the challenges and difficulties it faces.

I should add that the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), who is the Minister with responsibility for the Commonwealth, regrets that he cannot respond to the debate. He is on a very long-planned ministerial visit elsewhere in the world. As Minister for Europe, however, I am delighted to deal regularly with two members of the Commonwealth as fellow members of the European Union, and—before my hon. Friend the Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) intervenes to remind me—with Gibraltar, a British overseas territory that is part of the EU and whose position in EU negotiations is something that I and the Foreign Secretary are always on the alert to safeguard.

In talking about the Commonwealth, we understandably focus on Governments and the incredible variety of countries, large and small, represented in this network of 53 nations spread across six continents and oceans. As has come through in the debate, we always need to bear in mind that those countries are home to no fewer than 2 billion citizens. The Commonwealth’s strength lies not solely in the relationships between the Governments of its member states, but in that web of around 100 different Commonwealth civil society organisations: professional, scientific and academic bodies that continue, month after month, usually unremarked and far from the national press headlines in any country, doing their important, constructive work for the good of the people of all those 53 countries.

This week, we marked Commonwealth day. This year’s celebrations have a special significance as we remember those soldiers from across the Commonwealth who fought and died for freedom and democracy during the first world war. Also, in September, we will mark the 75th anniversary of world war two, when we shall have occasion to reflect on the sacrifice of so many people during that conflict from Commonwealth countries and territories throughout the world.

Coincidentally, I was in a meeting earlier today with the Belgian Foreign Minister and one of the subjects we discussed was the work that the United Kingdom and Belgium are doing to commemorate the centenary of the first world war. The place of Commonwealth servicemen and women will be an important part of the British Government’s planning for that. I address this comment in particular to my hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford): one of the very important events in the Government’s planning for those commemorations over the next four years will be the centenary of the Gallipoli landings next year, which is hugely significant in the collective memory of the people of New Zealand and Australia.

This summer, Glasgow will host the Commonwealth games. Scotland is no stranger to the games, having hosted them in 1970 and 1986. I know that the games organising committee, Glasgow city council, the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government are all working hard to make Glasgow 2014 a triumphant success. The“Team Commonwealth” theme of the 2014 games, is particularly appropriate. One reason the games will be a success is that the whole of the UK is working together at all levels as a team to achieve that.

Sport has a unique power to promote some of the Commonwealth values we cherish: teamwork, fairness, respect and equal treatment. This time last year, Her Majesty the Queen signed the Commonwealth charter, to which every Commonwealth nation has agreed and which sets out the Commonwealth’s core values for the first time in a single document. Those values are important in their own right, as respect for human rights and strong institutions are fundamental building blocks of development and prosperity.

However, as hon. Members have highlighted today, respect for the values set out in the charter is not yet consistent across the Commonwealth. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Saffron Walden said, not every Commonwealth member observes those values fully. During our debate, a number of hon. Members have drawn attention to particular problems in different Commonwealth member states.

I say to my right hon. Friend that member states have agreed to take forward all but 17 of the 106 recommendations that the eminent persons group made at CHOGM. Those include agreement on the Commonwealth charter and a strengthened Commonwealth ministerial action group, known as CMAG. The secretariat is now working on a new strategic plan to take it through to 2016-17. The key is the swift implementation of the recommendations of the eminent persons group, and this country will continue to work closely on that with the secretariat and with other member states.

We must be honest about the fact that the Commonwealth is an organisation that has always proceeded by consensus. There is no provision for majority voting or for a majority of the Commonwealth to mandate any one member to change its practices. It is more a question of the informal influence that can come from peer group pressure, or the advice of candid friends—perhaps it is best put that way. That is what we should rely upon to try to secure the change we want in line with the Commonwealth charter, which every Commonwealth member has undertaken to uphold.

I will respond now to some of the specific issues raised by hon. Members. I will take first the case raised by the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy). I am grateful to her for alerting me to the matter before the start of the debate. We are urgently investigating reports that a British national is facing execution in Malaysia. It is not yet certain that the man in question has kept British citizenship. Some media reports have suggested that he has joint Nigerian and UK citizenship, but we have also heard a suggestion from Amnesty today that the person in question no longer has United Kingdom citizenship. We are investigating that urgently, given what has happened.

Uganda has been mentioned in several speeches, particularly in that of the hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts (Pamela Nash). As the House knows, on 24 February this year, the President of Uganda signed into law the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which increases sanctions against homosexuality. Ugandan civil society and human rights institutions have objected to that Bill in the strongest terms. They believe that it is incompatible with Uganda’s constitution and international obligations, and that it will harm human rights in Uganda. We share the concerns expressed by those Ugandan institutions. We have consistently raised, and will continue to raise, our concerns about the Bill with the Ugandan Government at the most senior levels.

The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Mark Simmonds), raised this issue with the Foreign Minister of Uganda on 28 December and again on 28 January and, most recently, with the deputy Foreign Minister of Uganda on 13 February.

As the hon. Member for Bristol East rightly said, both the Foreign Secretary and Baroness Warsi met Frank Mugisha, a leading Ugandan LGBT activist, yesterday to discuss the latest developments and to take his advice on how the international community might best support individuals and organisations in Uganda.

Our high commissioner in Kampala met the Ugandan Minister of Justice earlier this week. The high commissioner has also received assurances recently from the inspector general of police on the protection of individuals. I assure the House and the hon. Member for Bristol East in particular that we will continue to follow this issue closely and actively make representations at all appropriate levels of the Ugandan Government and Administration.

[Pamela Nash]

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive answer. I shall ask just one specific question, which I asked in my speech. Have the Government called in the Ugandan high commissioner here in London and if not, why not?

[Mr Lidington]

I will draw the hon. Lady’s question to the attention of my hon. Friend the Minister with responsibility for Africa, who is travelling on ministerial duties this week. If we judged that to be the best way of making effective representations, we would not hesitate to do that.

The hon. Lady mentioned various options for action that might be taken. There is a judgment to be made about the right balance in these circumstances, between the megaphone and the candid words in conversation. We try to judge these issues so that we end up with a set of actions that are most likely to help those people who are under threat in Uganda. My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and Baroness Warsi met Mr Mugisha yesterday so that they could hear first hand from somebody living in Uganda who feels that his position is at risk, and find out what he thinks are the most effective ways to try to seek a change in policy in Uganda.

The hon. Lady also mentioned Nigeria. We are disappointed that President Jonathan has given his assent to a Bill that would further criminalise same-sex relationships in Nigeria and infringe on the human rights of LGBT people. The Foreign Secretary made a statement on 15 January that highlighted our concerns and my hon. Friend the Minister for Africa raised these concerns directly with President Jonathan in Abuja, when he visited Nigeria on 27 February. Again, we will continue to lobby at the highest levels on this issue.

I was also asked about the persecution of Christians and other minorities in Pakistan. We continue to urge the Government of Pakistan to guarantee fully the human rights of all people in Pakistan, particularly the most vulnerable: women, minorities and children. These principles are, after all, laid down in the constitution of Pakistan and are in accordance with international standards, to which Pakistan has subscribed.

We regularly raise the issue of Christians and religious freedom more generally at senior level with the authorities in Pakistan, and did so during the Foreign Secretary’s visit to Pakistan in July 2013 and Baroness Warsi’s visit in September 2013. In fairness, the Pakistani authorities have publicly recognised the problems that their countries’ minorities face and the need to bring an end to religious persecution. The British Government remain fully committed to working in partnership with the Government of Pakistan to achieve that, and to tackle both terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms.

We cannot as one country impose change, particularly in public attitudes, which may in some Commonwealth nations be very different from public attitudes in this country, but we can and we will continue to speak out when basic human rights—life, liberty and personal safety—are violated. There can be no justification for infringing such fundamental human rights, which are central to a strong and prosperous society. The consequences of failing to respect human rights are apparent in Sri Lanka. I will give the Chamber the update for which the hon. Member for Bristol East asked.

The Prime Minister used his presence at CHOGM in Colombo in November 2013 to emphasise the United Kingdom’s and indeed the international community’s serious concerns about human rights in Sri Lanka. He made it clear that the Sri Lankan Government should begin a credible independent investigation into violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by both sides during the war by March, when the UN Human Rights Council meets to discuss Sri Lanka. No credible domestic process has yet begun.

Establishing the truth plays an important role in reconciliation. As a result, the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon made it clear at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 3 March that we would now call for an international investigation. I draw the attention of the Chamber to a written ministerial statement that my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary published today on Sri Lanka. It is available in the Library and will be printed in tomorrow’s Hansard. That statement says, among other things, that a draft resolution was jointly tabled by the UN Human Rights Council on Monday 3 March by the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Mauritius, Macedonia and Montenegro. The draft resolution calls for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to lead the international investigation and to report back by March 2015. Further discussions on the text will take place this month.

The adoption of the resolution is not a foregone conclusion. Ahead of the vote, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, I, other Foreign Office Ministers and other Ministers across the Government have been in contact with a wide range of UN Human Rights Council member states to encourage them to support a strong resolution that calls for an international investigation. In doing so, we have drawn attention to the assessment of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who points to the need for such an investigation as progress on accountability in Sri Lanka has been, in her words, “limited and piecemeal”. In the days remaining before the vote takes place, we will continue to urge UNHRC members to support this action, and we will maintain our close contact with non-governmental organisations and civil society throughout.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Lidington and Pamela Nash

Tuesday 14th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Europe (Mr David Lidington)]

We have made direct representations at ministerial, ambassadorial and senior official level on a number of occasions, and of course we continue to condemn the imprisonment of Opposition politicians in Belarus, as well as the persecution and harassment of civil society leaders and human rights defenders there.

[Pamela Nash]

President Lukashenko’s Administration are responsible for a series of enterprises, the profits from which are kept within the presidential Administration, including the KGB. Owing to clear close financial links between state oppression and such enterprises, is it not time that the UK looked at prohibiting British trade and investment with those companies?

[Mr Lidington]

As the hon. Lady knows, together with our European Union partners we have agreed a set of sanctions targeted against leading members of the Belarusian regime. There is also a review of the possibility of additional economic sanctions. Not every EU country has expressed itself in favour of that course, and we must take account of the need to get the balance right between harming the regime and not trying to impoverish further a people already oppressed. However, I take seriously the point she makes.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Lidington and Pamela Nash

Tuesday 9th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Europe (Mr David Lidington)]

In 2011, our priorities for the European Union will be to ensure, first, that it can seek to deliver economic growth, through action to increase trade, competitiveness and jobs; and secondly, that it demonstrates effective control over its own spending.

[Pamela Nash]

I thank the Minister for that answer, but can he explain to the House why the European Parliament’s lead budget negotiator has stated that the EU spending increase is likely to be at least 4.5%, when the Prime Minister is still publicly stating that there will be a 2.9% cap?

[Mr Lidington]

I think the MEP concerned is demonstrating a certain amount of wishful thinking. Our position remains that we are not prepared to accept anything beyond 2.9%, and the Prime Minister was able to win the support of 12 other Heads of Government for that position at the recent European summit.