International Women’s Day

Baroness Nye Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Nye (Lab)]

My Lords, I too would like to pay tribute to the wonderful maiden speeches from the women today. I have had the privilege of working with all of them—in the case of my noble friend Lady Linforth, for too many years to mention. I feel somehow that a new APPG is being formed on the transition from back room to front of house.

On this International Women’s Day, I begin by recognising the remarkable courage of Gisèle Pelicot, a survivor whose advocacy has become a powerful force for change. She has inspired many through her determination to shift the burden of shame away from victims and firmly on to perpetrators. Her work stands as a reminder that survival itself is an act of resistance, and that the voices of survivors must be central to reform. Yet, for every woman able to speak publicly, there are too many who cannot. We heard from my noble friend Lady Casey the list of women whose lives have so tragically been cut short this year because of violence by men. However, that list does not include the number of women who take the desperate decision to take their lives following domestic abuse, because those deaths are vastly under-recorded.

It is thought that official statistics may capture as little as 6% of suicides where domestic abuse is a contributing factor. A recent regional study from Kent found that one-third of all suicides between 2018 and 2024 involved domestic abuse. If reflected across the UK, as many as 1,500 women each year may be committing suicide because of abuse, up to 15 times higher than previously recognised. This means that women experiencing abuse may now be more likely to die by suicide than by homicide. This is not only a tragedy, but a profound institutional failure.

The Government’s Tackling Violence against Women and Girls Strategy, rightly highlights the lack of professional curiosity that has so often characterised institutional responses to these deaths. The Government know that it is vital that police officers acknowledge the link between domestic abuse and suicide and are working to make sure that understanding is effectively embedded. But policing cannot shoulder this burden alone. The NHS has a crucial role in prevention. In far too many cases, there has been repeated contact with health services. It is shocking that 85% of victims ask for help five times before they receive the support they need. GPs are often the first port of call, and every doctor, nurse and healthcare worker must be trained to be confident in spotting the hidden agenda that can lie behind routine appointments. We also need to ensure better data sharing across the NHS between GPs, A&E and mental health services, so that the warning signs are not lost in silos. These women deserve far better. We need to address under-reporting, improve investigative standards and reform the way abuse-linked suicides are identified and recorded.

As we confront violence against women in our own communities, we must also recognise that such violence is not confined within our national borders. In that respect, I refer the House to my entry in the register because, as a trustee of the Burma Campaign UK, I know how women and girls in Myanmar continue to face widespread and systemic sexual violence in the ongoing conflict. The situation in Myanmar remains one of the gravest humanitarian and human rights crises of our time. Before and after the military coup in 2021, the Burmese army has systematically weaponised sexual violence as a tactic of war, escalating a long-standing pattern of rape, gang rape and sexual torture to terrorise and crush resistance. Now, credible testimony shows that the Arakha Army in Rakhine State is adopting the same tactics, also perpetuating rape and torture, mainly against Rohingya women and girls in detention centres.

As the penholder on Myanmar at the UN Security Council, Britain has a responsibility to take a lead. However, unlike the US, Canada and the EU, it has been more than a year since the British Government brought in any new sanctions to reduce money, arms or equipment, including jet fuel, reaching the Burmese military. There have been no sanctions at all on any member of the Arakan Army responsible for these atrocities. Will the Minister ask the Foreign Secretary, as a matter of urgency, to look at further sanctions? The people of Burma need a signal that the world is watching and that the perpetrators of these crimes cannot act with impunity, because the women and girls deserve no less.