Iran
Ellie Chowns Excerpts(4 days ago)
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Yvette Cooper
Responsibility for what we have seen, and for potentially thousands of deaths and the killings that we have seen, lies squarely with the Iranian regime.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement. Like her, I condemn absolutely the repressive, violent, vicious crackdown on protesters by the Iranian regime, and pay tribute to the bravery of so many Iranian citizens who, over so many years, have protested, advocated, campaigned and been on the streets calling for fundamental rights and freedoms for all citizens. I welcome the new sanctions against the regime that she has announced today. She also talked about sending a message to other countries that seek to break those UN sanctions. Is she considering other concrete measures against such countries that engage in sanctions busting, such as sanctions against them?
Yvette Cooper
The action that we saw with the vessel that was interdicted by the US was an example of enforcement of sanctions that was supported by the UK, and as we saw, that vessel had links not just to Iran but to Russia. The hon. Member is right to say that we need to call on all countries around the world to respect the UN sanctions process and to realise that this is not a time to be supporting this Iranian regime.
Middle East and North Africa
Ellie Chowns Excerpts(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Mr Falconer
I thank my hon. Friend for his kind opening remarks. It is easy, with so much going on, to lose sight of the individual cases in these conflicts, and meeting some of the children that we have medically evacuated is a truly humbling reminder not only of the horror of war and what is happening in Gaza, but of the power of the UK to really make a difference to people’s lives. I am grateful to him for bringing that to the House’s attention.
We are not only committed to a Palestinian state; we have recognised one. We have set out clearly where that Palestinian state is, and that clearly has implications under international law—points we have made both in relation to the most recent set of settlements announced by the Israeli Government and, indeed, some of the other very significant settlements, including the E1 settlement that has been announced. We are also taking steps on the correspondent banking questions, which are also vital. I can assure my hon. Friend, and indeed the House, that we will continue to work on these issues through the new year.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
I thank the Minister for his statement. He rightly condemns the outrageous blocking of the delivery of humanitarian aid, which is desperately needed in Gaza. His statement did not mention the west bank but, as colleagues have highlighted, another development over the Christmas period was the decision by the Israeli security council to permit the establishment of 19 new settlements. He rightly condemned that, but repeated condemnation that is repeatedly ignored by an Israeli Government that repeatedly break international law is simply not enough. Will the Minister finally take the straightforward and concrete step that is open to him by banning all trade with illegal settlements? They are illegal; their proceeds are the proceeds of crime. Why will he not take that step?
Mr Falconer
I remind the House that I have announced three waves of sanctions in relation to settlements in the west bank. I have announced sanctions on both Mr Smotrich and Mr Ben-Gvir—the two politicians in the Israeli Government that colleagues from across the House have most often referred to in their understandable concerns about the expansion of settlements. I will respond to the letter in relation to goods. As I said to the right hon. Member for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse), there are very different arrangements in place for trade with those settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Venezuela
Ellie Chowns Excerpts(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Yvette Cooper
The reason we stand up for the UN charter and international law is partly because it reflects our values and partly because it reflects our interests, and because that UN charter and international law framework underpin peace and security across the globe. Of course, throughout decades of history, international law and the UN charter have been tested and strained with the reality of different kinds of international affairs all over the world, and they will continue to be, but we still believe in the importance of advocating for international law and doing so with our closest allies.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
The US attack on Venezuela is clearly a breach of international law. Of course Maduro’s violent, repressive regime must be held accountable, but the Venezuelan people need and deserve international support that upholds international law, not the unilateral, unlawful US oil imperialism that we have seen. Does the Foreign Secretary recognise that a key function of any Foreign Secretary is to defend and uphold international law? Does she recognise that a year of pandering to and pussyfooting around Donald Trump has had no restraining effect and has instead emboldened him? Will she condemn the illegal US action?
Yvette Cooper
Let me just say what is in the interests of the people of Venezuela, because that was where the hon. Member started her question. What I think is in the interests of the people of Venezuela is not the Maduro regime, but a transition to democracy. We have worked for many years for a peaceful transition to democracy in line with international law, and that continues to be our policy, but we will work with the reality on the ground. We will work with all those involved and will use the particular assets we have with our experienced embassy to promote the transition to democracy in as safe and stable a way as possible. That is exactly why we are in touch with the Venezuelan opposition.
International Human Rights Day 2025
Ellie Chowns Excerpts(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Penrith and Solway (Markus Campbell-Savours) for securing the debate. I declare an interest as an officer of the all-party parliamentary human rights group.
I will start by highlighting the work of environmental human rights defenders and indigenous rights defenders, who are in need of our continued support. Their vital work protecting the land, health and livelihoods of their communities can be extremely dangerous. The 2025 Global Witness report documented the killing of 146 such defenders, the majority in Latin America, including 48 in Colombia, which has had the most killings globally for the past three years in a row, followed by Guatemala, where 20 defenders were killed last year. That is shocking.
Two thirds of the cases are linked to land or land reform, and indigenous people are disproportionately targeted. To mention two emblematic cases, Berta Cáceres from Honduras, a celebrated indigenous Lenca leader and Goldman environmental prize winner, was murdered in 2016 for her resistance to the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam. Her case became a major international warning about the risks faced by activists. Fikile Ntshangase, a South African activist, was shot dead in her home in 2020 for her leading role in a campaign against a coalmine. These women were incredibly brave—absolute icons and leading lights of international human rights work.
There are so many other unsung heroes doing the same. Claudia Ignacio Álvarez, from Mexico, whom the all-party group recently hosted, has faced threats and forced displacement for her work defending rural and indigenous communities. In Indonesia, Dewi Anakoda, an indigenous Tobelo woman, has received death threats and been violently attacked for helping journalists to expose the destruction of the neighbouring uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people’s territory resulting from the mining of nickel for electric vehicles.
It is vital that the renewable energy transition does not come at the expense of communities whose rights and environments are often very negatively affected by the mining of critical minerals. Co-ordinated global action is necessary to avoid replicating the terrible errors of the fossil fuel age in critical mineral mining.
In that connection, I note concerns expressed by some non-governmental organisations about the UK’s recently published critical minerals strategy. The Government still have a window of opportunity, through the Department for Business and Trade’s review of responsible business conduct, to ensure that we stop environmental devastation and human rights abuse in critical mineral supply chains. I hope that that will recommend the adoption of mandatory supply chain due diligence to protect human rights and the environment, and I would welcome the Minister’s comments on that.
There are many other human rights issues to mention. It is vital that we all work together to resist the push-back against women’s rights globally, as well as the horrific ongoing human rights abuses in Gaza and Sudan. It is so important that the UK Government step up to the plate and do their duty.
I finish by asking the Minister the question that I did not manage to ask the PM today. Given that it is Human Rights Day, and given that the UN has made absolutely clear that the global cuts in foreign aid are having a severely detrimental effect on the protection of human rights around the world, will the Government restore the UK’s global aid budget to defend human rights?
Oral Answers to Questions
Ellie Chowns Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Mr Falconer
The advisory opinion is an important piece of international legal opinion, so we are taking our time and ensuring that we have an adequate response. But I remind my hon. Friend that it is not like nothing has happened over the course of those 17 months: we have recognised the Palestinian state. That is absolutely central in the deliberations of the advisory opinion, and we have done many other things, too, as have been discussed over the course of this session.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
What action will the UK Government take as a consequence of Israel’s flagrant violation of international law in establishing and expanding settlements? The lack of action creates a culture of impunity in which Israel feels able to green light the expansion of the E1 settlement, creating division between the west bank and east Jerusalem and putting a nail in the coffin of the two-state solution. Will the Foreign Secretary ban trade with illegal settlements to show that violating international law has consequences?
Mr Falconer
We have, from this Dispatch Box, announced three waves of sanctions, including on Mr Ben-Gvir and Mr Smotrich. I have discussed the questions around trade on a number of occasions with the hon. Lady. Any trade with settlements does not benefit from the trade arrangements in place with green line Israel. We continue to take steps to ensure that that regime is enforced in full, and we continue to look at these issues very carefully.
Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations
Ellie Chowns Excerpts(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Dr Chowns
I thank the Minister; I appreciate that. We have been talking about the desperate need for unfettered aid access into Gaza for desperate, starving civilians. At the same time, this country continues to provide completely unfettered trade access for settlement goods into the UK—proceeds of crime, literally. Is it not time for the British Government to ban trade in settlement goods? Might that not help to put a little pressure on the Israeli Government to allow aid into Gaza?
Mr Falconer
As the hon. Lady knows, there is not unfettered trade with the occupied territories. They are not subject to the same trade arrangements as Israel, and where there are breaches, we will investigate those thoroughly. We have discussed many times some of the challenges around ensuring that goods produced in the occupied territories do not find their way into the mainstream Israeli trading system, but I do not have the time, I am afraid, to rehearse some of those arguments again this afternoon.
I will close by saying that the Government understand the urgency of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, on both sides of the yellow line. His Majesty’s Opposition ask whether we want to see the international system enter what some are calling the red zone, west of the yellow line, and indeed we do. That is absolutely vital. That is where 90% of Gaza’s population remains to this day. Humanitarian provision east of the yellow line cannot make a dent in the very significant humanitarian suffering that so many have described so eloquently.
The most recent figures that we have show famine levels reducing, and severe malnutrition has decreased since the ceasefire, but it is still far too high. I give this House my solemn commitment, and that of the Government, that we will not rest until humanitarian aid is entering Gaza in the volumes required to try to meet the staggering level of human suffering that so many have talked about with such power this afternoon.
Gaza and Sudan
Ellie Chowns Excerpts(1 month, 4 weeks ago)
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Yvette Cooper
I welcome the points that my hon. Friend makes about aid and the restrictions on weapons. On the approach we have been taking, let me say that earlier this year we secured the renewal of the UN fact-finding mission, because the first stage is to ensure that there is evidence. Most recently, there is a Human Rights Council resolution on enabling a full UN investigation into the atrocities. It is crucial that we have those investigations so that the international courts can hold people to account.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
I thank the Foreign Secretary for her statement. What further concrete steps will she take to increase pressure on Israel to allow humanitarian access for the more than 30 humanitarian NGOs that have been blocked from delivering urgently needed relief and to stop Israel supporting settlement expansion and settler violence? On Gaza, what new concrete actions will the Government take to press those who support the warring parties to stop the slaughter? Specifically, how will she persuade the UAE to put more pressure on the RSF to stop the slaughter?
Yvette Cooper
In terms of the steps we are taking to get Israel to allow the aid agencies in, we have raised that directly with the Israeli Government and through the CMCC as part of the peace process. Bear in mind that the flooding of Gaza with humanitarian aid was a crucial part of the 20-point plan and the ceasefire agreement that the Israeli Government and Hamas signed up to, so we need to ensure the implementation of that as well as having direct pressure. We continue to raise issues around the settlements.
On Sudan, we continue to engage with all the nations that can have any possible influence on the warring parties in order to seek the peace we desperately need.
Conflict in Sudan
Ellie Chowns Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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Mr Falconer
I agree with my hon. Friend about aid access. On the tangible steps that we are taking, as I said earlier, we have called today for an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council on these questions. We have supported the fact-finding mission. My colleague the Minister for Africa conducted an event at the UN General Assembly in September. The Foreign Secretary has described some of the work she has done, too. We will keep at it for as long as it takes.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
British-made military equipment has been found in conflict zones in Sudan. That includes Cummins engines found in armoured vehicles, which were not subject to export licensing, did not go through any checks and were not subject to any diversion checks having been sent to the UAE. The Minister dismissed the concerns expressed earlier by the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller), but is it not clear that our arms export licensing system is not functioning, is not fit for purpose and needs a full review, and that we should have an embargo on all arms exports to the UAE now? I agree with him that the UK Government need to do more, as does the world. Does that not include international pressure and sanctions on all those with links to the warring party, including, as I understand it, the UAE and Egypt, which are supporting and fuelling the horrific conflict in Sudan?
Mr Falconer
It is vital that external weaponry does not flow into Sudan at this time. I would not wish to characterise my earlier remarks to the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller), as dismissing his concerns; it was an effort to be precise about what we are talking about. The articles in question are a seat belt, a target practice item and components of an engine. The engine components may have been licensed at a previous time, but since then those licences would not apply for getting the components into Sudan. We need to be clear that these are neither bombs nor bullets, and nor are they items that are likely to be irreplaceable.
We are looking carefully at those reports, but given the tone of some of the commentary in this House, I want us to be absolutely clear what we are talking about. Our arms export licensing regime is one of the strongest in the world. I recognise the strength of concern in the House, but we have a duty to be precise about what we are talking about. These are not arms as the public would understand them. It is right that the hon. Member for North Herefordshire (Dr Chowns) raises questions about the engine components, and we are looking carefully at the reports about when they may have been transferred, but let us be under no illusion: the components for that engine are unlikely to be making a substantial contribution to the absolutely devastating violence that we are seeing.
Qatar: Israeli Strike
Ellie Chowns Excerpts(4 months, 1 week ago)
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Mr Falconer
My hon. Friend has been a persistent advocate on these questions, and I look forward to continuing to answer his questions from the Dispatch Box. He should not, though, be more pessimistic about the prospects of continued mediation and the Qataris themselves, particularly given that they are very much on the closest edge to this issue. We will continue to support them in their efforts. They are vital and, for all the reasons we have discussed this afternoon, the only way through.
Dr Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
We keep talking about a ceasefire, but how can one be achieved if one side is intent on killing the negotiators from the other? Attacking peace negotiators is simply reprehensible and undermines any possibility of the only thing—dialogue—that has any chance of bringing a resolution to the horrors in Gaza. It is not the action of a state seeking peace; it is the action of a rogue state operating with impunity completely outside international law, crossing red line after red line. I ask the Minister again: given that repeated crossing of new red lines, what action will he match his condemnation with? Will he stop all arms sales, all military co-operation, all intelligence-sharing and all defence deals, current and future, with Israel? Will he sanction Netanyahu and all officials complicit in the war crimes and genocide in Gaza?
Mr Falconer
I have set out already in this session our condemnation of the strikes, the sanctions taken against extremist figures in the Israeli Government and the other measures we have taken. In relation to action that follows from the strike on Doha, the Foreign Secretary will shortly be in touch with her E3 colleagues, and we hope that there will be a Security Council session this evening.
Middle East
Ellie Chowns Excerpts(4 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Mr Lammy
I am very grateful to journalists and media workers, who play an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war. We are part of the Media Freedom Coalition, and the UK is of course urging Israel to allow immediate independent foreign media access and to afford protections to journalists. I am very happy to meet my hon. Friend on this matter.
Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)
The Israeli Government are clearly hellbent on their horrific plan of eradicating Palestine with their continuing and ever-worsening genocide in Gaza, and now their approval of the shocking E1 plan that will divide the west bank and East Jerusalem. How can the Government continue to take no further action when there are so many options open to them? How many times have we heard the Foreign Secretary say in this Chamber that if things do not improve and if Israel does not desist, he will take further action, and yet he has not? When will this Government take action to end UK complicity and end the horror in Palestine?
Mr Lammy
I say to the hon. Lady that we banned arms sales that could be used in Israel back in September; Germany did so just a few weeks ago. We have had three rounds of sanctions against Israeli settlers and some of the expansion that we are seeing; France is yet to do the same. I ask her also to look at the amount of money that this Parliament and this Government have agreed to for aid, particularly for medical supplies—[Interruption.] The hon. Lady says there is more, but she does not quite articulate what more she believes we could do. We all want to bring this war to an end—we all want that. It is becoming a bit too easy to assert that without recognising the work that we are leading globally.