Earl of Courtown
Main Page: Earl of Courtown (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)Conflict-affected Countries: Adolescent Girls
Earl of Courtown Excerpts
The Earl of Courtown (Con)
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for contributing to this fascinating and important debate. In particular, I am hugely grateful to my noble friend Lady Hodgson for bringing it to the House. As all noble Lords have said, she is a well-known and impactful campaigner for gender equality, particularly for the rights of girls and women in conflict-affected states.
As all noble Lords said, adolescence is a critical time for girls when their experiences will profoundly affect the rest of their lives. Many face an increased risk of violence, pregnancy and early marriage, and the burden of family and community aspirations as well as new opportunities and decisions preparing for the type of life and work they wish to pursue.
The noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, asked a number of questions relating to abortion in these conflict areas. Where abortion is permitted, we can support programmes promoting safe abortion. In conflict situations, international humanitarian law principles might justify offering abortion rather than perpetuating what amounts to inhuman or degrading treatment. She asked a number of other questions which I have not answered. If possible, I will write to her with more details and place a copy in the Library.
As the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, and the noble Lord, Lord Collins, mentioned, women and girls bear a disproportionate burden of harm during conflict and war. In countries affected by conflict, girls are two and a half times more likely than boys to be out of school. In conflict situations, violence begins early in the lives of adolescent girls, with 60% of sexual assaults happening to girls aged 18 or under. On top of direct threats to their lives and safety, conflict harms adolescent girls in ways that are often overlooked. Violence and destruction interrupt access to education—a point mentioned by my noble friend Lady Hodgson, the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, and the noble Baroness, Lady Goudie. Girls in conflict zones are 90% more likely to be out of school than girls living in peace.
My noble friend Lady Hodgson and the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, wanted to know how we are ensuring that adolescents do not continue to fall through gaps in the system. The Government work with a wide range of international partners to ensure the best results for girls. We support partner nations to develop and implement national action plans on women, peace and security, and on child, early and forced marriage. DfID has made landmark funding commitments to address the needs of adolescent girls, and we have made the largest commitment ever to ending female genital mutilation. Through the Girls’ Education Challenge, we have committed a further £400 million to promote quality girls’ education, which all noble Lords agree is one of the most important things that should continue.
Conflict also leads to a breakdown in the customary and formal laws that protect girls. This allows harmful traditional practices, such as FGM and child, early and forced marriages, to rise in times of war. The scale of the problem is enormous, today affecting 1.2 billion of the adolescent population—the largest number the world has ever known. States have a moral and legal obligation to ensure girls’ protection and safety.
In supporting and protecting adolescent girls, we are empowering the decision-makers, peacebuilders and business leaders of the future. When girls have an education and are not forced to marry early, they and their children are healthier and better educated, improving the economic and physical well-being of generations to come. The Government are committed to promoting gender equality and supporting adolescent girls in fragile and conflict-affected states. Without faster progress on gender equality, the sustainable development goals will not be achieved.
Our national action plan on women, peace and security sets out our approach to promoting gender equality through our work to build security and stability overseas, as well as our commitment to protect the human rights of girls and women. DfID’s Strategic Vision for Gender Equality is a call to all stakeholders to step up on gender equality. It highlights adolescence as a critical time and promotes support for women and girls in conflict and crisis. DfID is committed to leading the way in this area. Today, as acknowledged by most noble Lords this evening, the United Kingdom is an international leader on gender equality. The Government are committed, across departments, to putting women and girls at the heart of our work to prevent and resolve conflict in some of the world’s most challenging contexts.
At the London family planning summit in July 2017, the UK ensured that the needs of women and adolescent girls in humanitarian crises were centre stage. We committed to spending an average of £225 million every year for the next five years to expand access to sexual and reproductive health services around the world, including in areas at risk of, or affected by, crises, as raised by the noble Lord, Lord Collins.
The noble Lord also mentioned Burma. The UK has led the way on the Rohingya crisis with a package of support focused on the needs of women and girls. We will reach about 250,000 people affected by sexual and gender-based violence with targeted training, psychosocial support and sexual and reproductive health services.
The UK’s support empowers girls to become leaders and decision-makers of the future. In Burma, where only 10% of national MPs are women, the UK has started new programmes with Girl Determined to support the Girls’ National Conference, creating safe networks for girls and growing their voices in politics. In north-east Nigeria, more than 2,300 girls and women, survivors of Boko Haram’s violence, have been supported to help restart their lives through intercommunal dialogue, the training of community leaders in peacebuilding, and psychosocial and medical assistance.
My noble friend Lady Anelay and the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, also raised issues relating to the work of DfID, the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, particularly in relation to South Sudan, as mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone. In South Sudan, we will help about 250,000 girls to stay in school. Also in South Sudan, the UK is funding the International Medical Corps to support survivors of gender-based violence and provide long-term prevention strategies. This work includes psychosocial and medical support to survivors, training for police on handling gender-based violence cases and working with men and community groups on addressing negative social attitudes towards women.
My noble friend Lady Hodgson talked about how specific programmes address the high danger for adolescents. The UK is leading the fight against modern slavery internationally. We also know that gender inequality is a key driver of modern slavery and have committed in excess of £200 million in UK aid to help address such exploitation and abuse, placing particular emphasis on ensuring that the needs of the most vulnerable are taken into account.
DfID’s flagship Girls’ Education Challenge programme, as mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, is helping up to 1.5 million marginalised girls to receive a quality education, including girls in refugee camps in Kenya and Afghanistan, and girls displaced within Somalia among other countries. In Syria, the United Kingdom helped to launch the No Lost Generation initiative, which provides education and safe spaces where children can receive counselling to help cope with the effects of violence that they have experienced or witnessed. In 2017-18, the UK reached 11.3 million children with education.
The UK will continue to be a champion for girls and women in conflict on a global stage. At this year’s UN Commission on the Status of Women, we will host an event to share evidence and secure commitments on social protection programmes to target adolescent girls. Through our work in the G7, G20 and other multinational platforms, promoting gender equality in conflict will be a strong theme.
The Government are also investing in research to understand what works to help adolescents overcome challenges and reach their potential. The Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence programme is a nine-year longitudinal research programme including 18,000 adolescents, a substantial sample of them refugees or displaced. It is important that we invest in programmes that tackle not only the basic needs of adolescent girls, including education and health, but their psychosocial well-being, voice, agency and their vulnerability to violence, child marriage and exploitation.
The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester asked whether there will be support for girls at the PSVI international conference later this year. The conference will take a survivor-centred approach, ensuring that the needs, concerns and priorities of all survivors—women, men, boys and girls—are discussed and addressed.
My noble friends Lady Hodgson and Lady Anelay and the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, also wanted to ensure that the United Kingdom does not lose momentum on this important issue. I am pleased that a number of noble Lords were able to attend the PSVI film festival, which shone a spotlight on the stigma often faced by survivors of sexual violence. The Government remain committed to ending the horror of sexual violence in conflict, and we will host a PSVI international conference in November 2019. I praise my noble friends Lady Anelay and Lord Ahmad for the work they have done in this area.
There are a number of points I have not covered, but I will write to all noble Lords on their issues and place copies in the Library. Throughout our work, the Government will continue to lead by example in demonstrating how gender equality and a focus on the rights of adolescent girls is an investment in peace, security and prosperity.