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

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 17th May 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, I commend the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, on ensuring that the Bill will, I hope, have a smooth passage. I took careful note of the speech from the noble Lord, Lord Verdirame, on some of the detail of how the Orders in Council are prepared. I very much hope that they will also be scrutinised by Parliament.

I commend our friend the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, and indicate that we will miss him. I hope he does not mind me saying that he joined Christian Aid before I was born and entered this House while I was studying. Since I have been here, over the last decade, he has been possibly the most consistent and sincere advocate for international development, and has given the most reasoned and precise arguments. I had the opportunity of looking at his maiden speech, to complete the circle. In 1995, he talked about the need for support for development assistance. He said:

“Let us not pretend that overseas aid is just giving something away to others, as some of its critics say. It means a more equal sharing of ideas, more understanding, advocacy and educational work, and diplomacy through involvement”.—[Official Report, 16/11/1995; col. 39.]


His involvement in this House will be greatly missed, but we have the advantage of Hansard to ensure that his words will remain. I will spare the blushes of the Minister and not read other parts of the noble Earl’s maiden speech, because he went on to criticise government aid cuts, which he has also needed to do over recent years. He will be greatly missed.

To some extent, I also wondered why these measures have not been in place already. Nevertheless, it is right to respond to the concerns of partner Parliaments that have asked us to act—and I am pleased that we will do so—to recognise the unique characteristics that should be provided to the ICRC and the Commonwealth.

I start with the ICRC. It is 160 years since the First Geneva Convention. It is of deep concern to me that, almost every week over the last year, including just yesterday, I have been referring to the Fourth Geneva Convention and the need for protections for civilians in conflict, which continues to grow. The proportion of civilians dying in conflict is a growing trend; therefore, regrettably, the Geneva conventions and the work of the ICRC are even more relevant now than we would have hoped. The recognition of its work is important, as the noble Lord, Lord Verdirame, said.

The noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, said that the value of the CPA is that we learn from each other, and I could not agree with her more. In the decade that I have been in this place, my work in Parliament has been informed by the relationships between and learning from fellow Commonwealth parliamentarians. As the noble Lord, Lord Howell, indicated, the Commonwealth is young. Not all parliamentarians in the Commonwealth are young, but many are reflecting on the huge challenges that afflict the Commonwealth. Parliamentarians have to be part of the solution and not considered to be part of the problem—there are too many times when that is the case.

This year marks the centenary of the first CPA conference—then the Empire Parliamentary Association —held outside London, in southern Africa, including in Lesotho. Next week, there will be a CPA UK visit to Lesotho, which I hope will cement the deep relationships that we have with our partner parliamentarians. As the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, indicated, it is also about the clerks, and, I would add, librarians and those in the wider parliamentary staff. It is now not just about procedures but, increasingly, about standards, the conduct of Members, staff relationships and the very contemporary issues of how democratic Parliaments should function.

When I chaired a commission with the Nigerian Trade Minister on trade and development in the Commonwealth, a witness told me something that has stuck with me since. She said that the Commonwealth has two great advantages: the first is that America is not a member, and the second is that neither is China. This means that, when we look at its member countries—including the most populous democratic country, which is going to elections as we speak, and the least populous country, which will also have elections this year—we see that the Commonwealth is a unique institution. When we learn, we learn from huge countries facing enormous developmental challenges and from tiny countries that have their own circumstances and challenges because of their scale. There is no other organisation like the CPA on the planet that allows parliamentarians to discuss, as equal partners, how we collectively address those challenges.

I will support anything that can be done to strengthen the CPA as an institution going into its next centenary of conferences. I hope that the Bill has safe passage through the House.