Commonwealth Meeting and the Philippines

Harriett Baldwin Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Any institution works only as well as the political will of its members. We can sometimes obsess too much about the precise make-up of the institution, but we need to look at the political will that goes into defending the values to which we have signed up.

[Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)]

The Prime Minister rightly highlighted the extensive work done by the Foreign Secretary to end the abhorrent practice of sexual violence in conflict. Given the evidence of that having occurred in Sri Lanka, what can our Government do to assist the victims?

[The Prime Minister]

The first thing we must do is to continue the Foreign Secretary’s excellent work to drive the issue to the top of the international agenda. Some really important steps in relation to commitments from other countries and through the UN have now been made. The specific allegations are one reason why the independent inquiry that we have talked about this afternoon is so important.