Lord Rook
Main Page: Lord Rook (Labour - Life peer)
Lord Rook (Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for securing this debate, and, as others have said, for his timeless commitment to these issues. I direct noble Lords to my interest as a partner of the Good Faith Partnership and as one of the founders of the UK Freedom of Religion or Belief Forum. At the outset, I also want to thank the Minister, my noble friend Lady Chapman, for her leadership on these issues. I met the noble Baroness earlier today and I am hugely grateful to her and her team for their sustained efforts to reduce conflict and promote peace in some of the most challenging contexts around our world.
It is now almost seven years since the FCDO published the Bishop of Truro review, commissioned by the then Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. That report, led by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Truro, now the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester, Philip Mounstephen, assessed both the scale of persecution faced by Christians globally and the adequacy of our foreign policy response. Government accepted all 22 recommendations, and an independent review in 2022 welcomed further progress while also identifying the need to strengthen protections for vulnerable communities. Further progress has been made under the current Government, and, in particular, I commend the work of my honourable friend David Smith MP in the other place as the UK’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief. I also want to welcome the FCDO’s strategy for FoRB. Its willingness to identify countries of concern and prioritise specific contexts signals a welcome move towards a more proactive approach, an approach that has already been affirmed on multiple occasions by noble Lords in this debate.
By implementing the Truro recommendations, His Majesty’s Government can go a considerable way in dealing with the issues at stake in this discussion. More often than not, FoRB violations are a symptom of wider sociopolitical problems and instability. Left untreated, these issues all too easily escalate, resulting in wider harms and the potential for greater atrocities. Furthermore, the systems required for early interventions in relation to FoRB violations will increase and accelerate our ability to prevent further atrocities. As with the other 21 recommendations, His Majesty’s Government accepted recommendation 7 of the Truro review in full. There have been valuable developments since. These include the creation of the Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation and the Mass Atrocity Prevention Hub, and the development of early warning tools such as the Countries at Risk of Instability process and Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability assessments.
In terms similar to those used by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, earlier, the UN Secretary-General has warned that the world is witnessing the highest number of conflicts since the end of the Second World War, with rising identity-based violence and serious violations of international human rights ever more prevalent. In such a fragile global order, readiness to act is essential. My question is therefore focused and simple. How is recommendation 7 of the Truro review being refreshed in practice? What further steps does the Minister believe are now needed to ensure that early warning consistently leads to early action, particularly where religious persecution significantly heightens the risk of future atrocities?
The Truro review gave us a framework. The Government’s FoRB strategy gives us renewed momentum. The task now is to ensure that recommendation 7 is fully realised so that our commitment to prevention is not only principled and aspirational but operational and effective.