Middle East: Situation of Women

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Excerpts

Thursday 7th November 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Hussein-Ece for bringing such an important issue to the Committee, and all noble Lords who have participated in this important debate. It would be remiss of me not to single out my noble friend Lady Hodgson, who I welcome to our Benches in the House of Lords and congratulate on her excellent maiden speech. It was both thoughtful and reflective of her great expertise across many areas, but particularly in the international field in relation to women’s rights. I look forward to working with her in the years ahead on this issue and on other matters. I wish her a very warm welcome.

I congratulate all noble Lords on their contributions. The noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, made a point about there being agreement across the board, and I believe that on this issue we all stand as one.

The UK strives to promote gender equality and to tackle violence against women as a matter of principle. We believe that human rights are universal and should apply equally to all people, regardless of gender. Where women have equal access to education, healthcare and political and economic opportunities, societies, as several noble Lords have mentioned, are healthier, more prosperous and more peaceful.

We all remember the Arab spring in 2011. Those who looked at their television screens and those who tweeted or went on to Facebook would have seen those great flags of hope, as young men and, importantly, young women came out in the hope of a new beginning. They took courageous stands in protests across the region, and enduring symbols of the Arab spring stay with us today. Men, women, youngsters and the old participated together in demonstrations, calling for a realisation of their political and economic aspirations. The noble Lord, Lord Collins of Highbury, highlighted that very well.

Since then, some—I use that word carefully—progress has been made. Many women have participated in democratic elections for the first time, shaping new Governments. In Libya, for example, women’s groups play an important role in civil society, but as my noble friend Lady Hodgson pointed out, many challenges remain in terms of political participation.

In Yemen, women now hold 126 of the 565—that is, 22%—seats in the National Dialogue Conference. I did a bit of a self-test here. I went to our House of Commons, where there are currently 146 women out of the 650 representatives, which I believe is also 22%, so perhaps the focus is not just, as it is today, on the MENA region; there is also much work for us to do elsewhere.

Prominent women are taking the lead in their societies. Let us not forget Tawakkol Karman, who jointly won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peacebuilding work. I have also learnt recently that she has given back the $500,000 that she won to be used in greater fights for freedoms and equality in her country. Earlier this year, my noble friend the Senior Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Lady Warsi, met another prominent woman from the region, the United Arab Emirates’ Development Minister, Sheikha Lubna.

However, challenges remain. As my noble friend Lady Hussein-Ece highlighted, the future for many women across the region remains uncertain, and there have not been the gains that we had hoped for—and, more importantly, that those in the region had hoped for—in democratic or political participation and opportunity. Let us be clear: women are underrepresented at senior levels of government and commerce in the region. Moreover, they often face basic economic inequalities, such as pay gaps.

The challenge is compounded by the political crises affecting parts of the region. Many noble Lords have rightly referred to Syria, where women face the challenges inherent in living in a conflict situation. In Libya, many women have become victims of sexual and domestic violence, as the noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, highlighted, and there is weak access to medical services. In Yemen, increased instability since 2011 has seen a major humanitarian crisis. As my noble friend Lady Berridge highlighted, the hopes that we saw in Tahrir Square in Egypt have not been realised in terms of political participation.

So what is the UK doing? Several noble Lords raised questions, and it is right that we highlight the steps that the Government have taken and continue to take. We recognise that increasing women’s participation is a vital part of supporting transitions and building stability in the region. As such, the UK is taking strong action to support women’s empowerment through a number of approaches.

The noble Lord, Lord Collins, and my noble friend Lady Berridge raised the issue of the EU fund and the donor policy. We have set up the Arab Partnership Fund, which was created in 2011 to support positive long-term reform in the region, and more than £110 million has been allocated between 2011 and 2015. Last year, approximately £2.6 million of that fund was allocated to projects that specifically benefited women. In Egypt, for example, we have provided assistance to women candidates in local elections. In Libya, we have funded work to strengthen women’s participation in the General National Congress. In Morocco, we are working to establish a women’s affairs committee in Parliament.

We have supported women’s economic empowerment in the region through our presidency of the G8 Deauville partnership. As part of that, we hosted a two-day conference in June on women’s economic empowerment, focused on creating business links between female entrepreneurs in the G8 and the region.

The noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, spoke with great clarity about some of the challenges faced by women and raised the issue of Bahrain and the Government’s position. Let me assure her that Her Majesty’s Government continue to work on supporting the process of national dialogue and political reform in Bahrain, including promoting international human rights standards and political reform. Those are key parts of the dialogue and in all our representations at ministerial level, we remind the Bahraini Government of that.

During the recent event, the DfID Secretary of State, my right honourable friend Justine Greening, announced the creation of an Arab women in business challenge fund. The UK has contributed £10 million to this fund, which will co-finance initiatives with the private sector to deliver new job opportunities for women in the region. The UK has also been working with several major law firms to establish a legal task force to recommend ways to address legal barriers to women’s economic participation. Additionally, we have selected women’s empowerment as one of the three themes of our work as co-chair of the G8-BMENA process. The aim of that work is to bring civil society and Governments in the region closer together.

I pay tribute to the work of my noble friend Lady Hodgson on the steering board currently advising the Foreign Secretary on his initiative to prevent sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict countries. The Foreign Secretary has made clear the priority he gives that issue, and it provides a further opportunity to engage with Governments in the region on women’s rights. The declaration of commitment to end sexual violence in conflict that the Foreign Secretary launched at the United Nations on 24 September has so far been endorsed by 134 countries, including almost all countries in the region. The noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, also spoke about that issue. I assure her that in all our discussions, whenever we meet Governments from across the MENA region, we raise the issue with them and the instances of human rights abuses, particularly sexual violence against women.

On Syria, we are undertaking gender-focused aid as part of our broader £500 million humanitarian relief effort to Syria and its neighbours. We are encouraging greater women’s participation in and around the Geneva II peace talks on Syria. Under the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, we are also focusing on improving advocacy for women’s rights. We are training doctors and human rights defenders to document human rights abuses, including sexual violence, with a view to assisting future transitional justice efforts.

Picking up a point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, health services have shown improvement in those countries, but more needs to be done, particularly on sensitivity to some of the issues surrounding women.

As I said, through Geneva II, we recognise the Syrian National Council as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. As part of our efforts with international partners, we seek to ensure that the coalition is able to reflect and meet the aspirations of all Syrian people and reflect the representation of women in its membership.

On Egypt, I assure my noble friend Lady Berridge that FCO Ministers have made clear in their contacts with the Egyptian authorities that women’s participation is a key part of supporting transition and building stability. We will continue to raise the issue.

My noble friend Lady Hodgson raised the issue of low female representation—six seats out of 60—in Libya. We continue to urge the Libyan Government to ensure that women’s rights are fully protected under the new constitution.

I have given just some of the initiatives we are taking but the UK is working hard to strengthen the role of women across the MENA region. I fully accept that many challenges remain and the opportunities afforded by the transitions in the region have yet to lead to widespread concrete and sustainable gains for women. Now is not the time to draw back our efforts, and we shall not, but rather to maintain and strengthen them. The potential gains are huge. For example, research has shown that if female employment rates in Egypt matched those of men, GDP would increase by 34% by 2020.

In conclusion, women played a key role in the demonstrations of the Arab spring and there is an absolute need to ensure that they continue to take a central and pivotal role as we build the democracies and new constitutions of the region. This Government remain committed to backing those aspirations and to turning that hope into reality. We stood with many of the protesters in these countries—men, women, the elderly and children—as they sought to bring change, and we will stand with them in their transitional progress. We heard about the vision of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the formation of Pakistan but perhaps many of the countries that put Islam at their centre need to reflect on the origins of Islam, where women played a pivotal and central role in the empowerment and progression of the faith. I end with a quote from another lady who inspired many. Those who wish to give up hope should remember Eleanor Roosevelt’s words:

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that very comprehensive and informative reply. I think it was very well made.