International Development Policies

Lord Alton of Liverpool Excerpts

Thursday 19th November 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for initiating this debate and join others in congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Barker of Battle, on his maiden speech today.

In parenthesis, because this has been a theme that has emerged in the course of the debate, all experience shows that if you tackle poverty then population falls naturally. If you launch population control programmes, you may end up with coercive policies such as those in China, where there are now 40 million more men than women and where we have seen gendercide—policies aided and abetted by the West and development programmes.

However, I shall focus my remarks on an issue that I raised two weeks ago with the Minister when she was good enough to meet a small delegation of Fiona Bruce MP and myself. We expressed particular concern that British aid is not being used effectively to combat the rise of radical Islamist agendas and that, like our refugee policy, this is not being targeted to reach persecuted minorities, such as Yazidis and Christians, who are suffering genocide and crimes against humanity. All around the world, as we are all too acutely aware, an ideological hatred of difference is driving a systematic campaign of persecution, deportation and exodus, degrading treatment including sexual violence, enslavement, barbaric executions, and attempts to destroy history and culture that is not its own.

I ask your Lordships to think of some of the countries that receive UK aid. The biggest recipient is Pakistan. This year it will receive £405 million, making £1.17 billion since 2011. How do we ensure that funding for education is spent on the right things? Here the noble Baroness, Lady Flather, and I would agree: think of young Malala, targeted simply because, as a girl, she wanted an education. Think about how the funding is being spent on promoting intolerance in the curriculum. The Minister will recall some of the examples I gave her, not least in some textbooks that give children choices about which would be the best way to execute homosexuals. This is feeding the minds of young people.

How do we ensure that Pakistan’s beleaguered minorities receive help? Last week I chaired two days of evidence sessions here in Parliament, where we heard how exactly a year ago a mob of 1,200 people forced two children to watch as their Christian parents were burned alive. Pakistan has imposed the death penalty on a mother of five, Asia Bibi, for so-called blasphemy. It still has to bring to justice the murderers of Shahbaz Bhatti, the country’s Minister for Minorities who was assassinated; only last night we heard from his brother, Dr Paul Bhatti, who was here in the Palace talking about some of the other excesses committed not just against Christians but against Shias, Hindus and Ahmadis. This is a country where churchgoers have been murdered in their pews. How is our aid programme making a difference there?

Or take Eritrea, which is in receipt of a $300-million aid programme handed over to the Afwerki regime by the European Union, to which we have contributed. The United Nations said in June that Eritrea is a country which is likely to have carried out gross human rights violations. Some 5,000 people leave Eritrea every month. A total of 350,000 people, 10% of the population, have fled. This is a huge development question. It also leads to an exodus of people in Mediterranean passages and some also, of course, being beheaded by ISIS.

The House of Commons International Development Select Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into the Syrian refugee crisis. It was recently told by a witness that aid is not reaching the Christians or Yazidis because those are too frightened to go into the UN-registered camps. How does the Minister respond to that? DfID could usefully become proactive in promoting a debate about Article 18, the right to believe, not to believe or to change your belief. Think of recent events with secularists in Saudi Arabia or Bangladesh. Look at the link between prosperous societies and those that uphold freedom of religion and belief. These are crucial questions and should be at the heart of our aid programmes. It may salve our conscience to give money, but it has to be effective.