Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and International Committee of the Red Cross (Status) Bill

Lord Haselhurst Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 17th May 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Haselhurst (Con)]

My Lords, I still find it very daunting to address your noble selves with my opinions on and experiences of certain things, but I feel extremely humble in the wake of what we have just heard. I am sure that there will be other occasions, too, when the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, will receive the thanks and gratitude of so many of us.

I hope that the Red Cross will not think that it has been neglected today, but I think it can be said that, whenever we have referred to the CPA, we have embraced it, because it is in the title of the Bill. The problem we are dealing with today has been a feature of both organisations and an irritant at the same time.

I had the honour of being the chairman of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association for a three-year period. Looking back, in my speech urging members to choose me as their next chairperson, I—perhaps foolishly—gave the impression that they only had to choose me and this irritant that had obstructed much of the work of both organisations would be dealt with. After my election, the question of why I had not achieved it was brought back to me all the time. Well, I congratulate Maria Miller in the other place and the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, in this place on tackling this so comprehensively.

After a period of time in the original Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, we began to see a women’s organisation within it. Then, there was a separate arrangement for the small jurisdictions, which, in many cases, have wildly different issues compared with many of the other larger countries. I am thinking, of course, of those jurisdictions in the Pacific Ocean that are not just concerned with improving their quality of life on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, but are vulnerable to disappearing altogether.

The seminar is one of the features of this Parliament’s interest in the continuation of a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and our membership of it. It is a great feature of what is offered to parliamentarians across the Commonwealth. I saw them coming and being asked to give their names, what they did and so on. It was very calm, but people felt nervous about coming in front of a lot of other people and they were not sure how they would get on. Five or six days later, when they had had the full benefit of this seminar, the mood among those people from across the globe was so much better. There were in-jokes between them on certain issues, and that is a pathway that has led to much better co-operation, on a continuing basis, with all the other countries and jurisdictions of the Commonwealth.

However, there was the business of not being able to have the rights that the Bill from the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, seeks to put upon them. The fact of the matter is that we could not get it through. Now, there is a unanimous feeling both in the other place and in your Lordships’ House. I have seen proof of how nations can come together and how people can begin to understand each other, for example in the smaller organisations such as the women’s organisation that I mentioned. I am also passionate about getting more young people involved, to hear from them at their level. At conferences, I have on occasion heard some outstanding speeches from young people.

The CPA is a forum in which to deal with matters that upset us from time to time, and this piece of legislation is absolutely essential. As King Charles said on adopting the post of patron of the organisation, this is a great opportunity for people to come together. We want the young people of the Commonwealth to come together, and then we can all benefit.