International Women’s Day

Janet Daby Excerpts

Thursday 11th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab) [V]]

I am grateful to speak in this debate, and although it should really be a debate of celebration, I shall begin by saying that my thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Sarah Everard. We all need to do all we can to ensure that the UK is a safe place for all women. I also wish to acknowledge the powerful and meaningful contribution from the hon. Member for Hyndburn (Sara Britcliffe), who spoke a moment ago.

I now wish to turn my focus to the cruelty that so many women experience in other parts of the world. The brutal Chinese communist party regime in China has put hundreds of thousands of lives under threat. The women of the Uyghur Muslim community are being persecuted as we speak, in what our Government really need to accept is an attempt at genocide. In Xinjiang province, women have been sterilised en masse in an attempt to reduce the population, women have been forced to have abortions and women have been separated from their children as they go off to prison camps and their children go to orphanages. In the prison camps they are systematically raped by prison guards. They are beaten and their morale is broken. Footage has been found of large-scale forced labour where they are picking cotton, which then ends up on our clothes rails. It is devastating speaking about this, but what is even worse is that our Government are doing nothing. We sit back and merely condemn the Chinese regime, and the suffering of Uyghur women is getting worse by the day. I call for the Foreign Secretary to impose sanctions on the Chinese officials committing these abuses and to declare that it is a programme of genocide.

Women are also being persecuted for their faith. Open Doors UK has written about women and girls being at greater risk of gender-specific religious persecution, including forced marriages, sexual violence and emotional abuse. ActionAid UK has made it clear that the UK has a significant impact on challenging the oppression of women around the world. If we restored the 0.7% rate of overseas aid, which our Government tragically cut last year, it would make a huge difference to so many people’s lives.

We are co-leaders of the UN action coalition on gender-based violence. How can we hold that position with integrity while at the same time breaking our financial promises to charities and NGOs around the world? Today we are reminded of male violence against women. We have come so far as women, but there is still so much more to challenge. I ask hon. and right hon. Ladies from across the political divide that we are not divided on these issues.