Women, Peace and Security Bill [HL]

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale Excerpts

Friday 15th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson, on reintroducing the Bill and campaigning over many years on this issue. I declare my interests as in the register. I would like to pick up on a couple of points made in the debate.

The noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, referred to the children stolen from Ukraine by the Russian army and the Russian authorities. This is a very good example, right here and now, of why we need to ensure that passionate, caring voices are engaged in any negotiations that are taking place to bring an end to the conflict. If the men dominating the discussions in the White House and those engaged in Moscow dominate the discussions on what might or might not bring an end to the war in Ukraine over the coming weeks and months, I am certain that those 20,000 children will remain in Russia, a country in which they do not belong, with their Ukrainian identity removed, and will not be returned home wherever the lines are drawn on the map. We, as the United Kingdom, should be standing up for those children and insisting, with other European partners, that they are part of any deal that is reached to bring an end to that conflict. Last week I held a screening here in Parliament of a brilliant new documentary film, “After the Rain”. I hope that it gets an Oscar nomination but also that many thousands of people see it and raise their voices over the coming weeks.

I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Foster, on raising the important issue of women in negotiations. Other Members of your Lordships’ House have raised that in the debate as well. I have had the pleasure, over the last 10 years, to be actively engaged in the Bangsamoro peace protest in Muslim Mindanao in the Philippines. I believe that was the first peace agreement in the world where the negotiations were chaired by a woman peace negotiator. She is from Malaysia and still engaged to this day. That process has continued, with some outstanding women involved in the Bangsamoro interim parliament that is building the institutions that will secure the peace process for the future. That is a good, concrete example of why having women involved not just in negotiations but in the implementation of peace agreements is so critical.

When I first heard about this Bill, I had some reservations. I am not one for legislating for the sake of it. When I hear about a Bill that will just legislate for things that we are doing already, I worry that perhaps we are overdoing it. But I have become convinced over these last few years, since the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson, first made the proposal, that this Bill is essential. I support everything that the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, said. He was a powerful champion of these issues inside government and clearly will be a very energetic and demonstrative advocate for them on the Opposition Benches.

There has been too much inconsistency on this over the years. The noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, was consistent, but his colleagues were not. We have seen support for conflict prevention and peacebuilding from the United Kingdom diminish and reduce over the past decade. The noble Lord, Lord Hague, built on the good work done by the previous Labour Government, but in the past decade the budget has been reduced. The proportion of the budget being spent on conflict prevention and peacebuilding has been reduced. The references and the energy that we have given to this at the highest levels of the UK Government have been reduced, and I have a slight suspicion that above the noble Lord, Lord Collins, who I believe is very passionate about these issues and will do his very best, there are still some issues on this with the new Government, if the rumours about the reductions in the Integrated Security Fund are true.

We need to put these measures into legislation and ensure that Governments are forced to report, act and have regard to this, regardless of the personalities who hold the positions around the Cabinet table. This Bill has my full support.