Baroness Helic: My Lords, I support Amendments 59, 63, 64 and 67. I believe these are measured and proportionate steps to preserve existing safeguards around child detention—safeguards introduced by a Conservative Government. Child detention must only ever be a last resort. That is a clear requirement, as many have said, of Article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which also requires...
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recent unrest in northern Kosovo; and what steps they are taking to support stability, democracy and human rights in (1) Kosovo, and (2) the Western Balkans region.
Baroness Helic: I thank my noble friend for his update and pay tribute to NATO soldiers, including our own. The incident which resulted in 30 NATO peace- keepers being injured appears to have been a co-ordinated attack supported and inspired by Belgrade, yet both the United States and the EU seem to have chosen to ignore Belgrade’s hand in this flare-up and have imposed, and threatened to impose, sanctions...
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recent unrest in northern Kosovo; and what steps they are taking to support stability, democracy and human rights in (1) Kosovo, and (2) the Western Balkans region.
Baroness Helic: I thank my noble friend for his update and pay tribute to NATO soldiers, including our own. The incident which resulted in 30 NATO peace- keepers being injured appears to have been a co-ordinated attack supported and inspired by Belgrade, yet both the United States and the EU seem to have chosen to ignore Belgrade’s hand in this flare-up and have imposed, and threatened to impose, sanctions...
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, and intend to take, in response to reports of gender-based violence in Sudan.
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what recent initiatives or programmes they (1) have funded, and (2) are aware of, to combat gender-based violence in Sudan.
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they (1) have deployed, or (2) intend to deploy, an expert team to Sudan’s neighbouring countries to assist in (a) responding to, and (b) investigating reports of, gender-based violence in Sudan; and if so, what is that team's mandate.
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what partnerships they have formed with other (1) governments, or (2) international organisations, to respond to reports of gender-based violence in Sudan.
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will take steps, with international partners, to ensure the (1) protection, and (2) support, of survivors of gender-based violence in Sudan, including with regard to access to (a) healthcare, (b) counselling, and (c) legal assistance.
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) strategies, (2) best practices, and (3) lessons learned, in addressing gender-based violence in other contexts, they intend to promote and adapt with international partners working in Sudan.
Baroness Helic: My Lords, I should perhaps declare an interest as someone who has experience of fleeing their home and country of origin. I share my noble friend the Minister’s desire to see a fair, safe and controlled immigration and asylum system. I am grateful to him for speaking to me about the Bill. However, I do not believe, I am afraid, that the Bill is likely to be successful in its stated goals or...
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the letter published by the Future of Life Institute Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, published on 29 March, what plans they have to work with partners at the United Nations Security Council to pause the development of advanced AI for six months.
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the letter published by the Future of Life Institute Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, published on 29 March; and what steps they intend to take in response to the recommendation in that letter that there should be "shared safety protocols for AI" which are audited and overseen by independent outside experts".
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 14 March (HL5987), what assessment they have made of the impact of the difficulty of assessing bruises on darker skin on (1) documenting and prosecuting cases of domestic violence, and (2) providing treatment and support to victims of domestic violence.
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of disparities in the response to, and treatment of, domestic abuse and domestic violence on the basis of race or ethnicity.
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what were the conviction rates for prosecutions of domestic violence in each of the last five years, disaggregated by the ethnicity of the victim.
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government how many Ministry of Defence Form 680 applications for the release of information or equipment to Serbian entities have been (1) made, (2) granted, and (3) refused, in the last three years for which records are available.
Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance they have issued to police and forensic nurses regarding the use of Alternative Light Sources to detect bruising on dark skin; and what steps they are taking to support the use of this process.
