[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Backbench Business — Commonwealth Day

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 3:23 pm on 13 March 2014.

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Photo of Kerry McCarthy Kerry McCarthy Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) 3:23, 13 March 2014

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Mr Brady. I congratulate the Backbench Business Committee on providing this opportunity, and I thank Sir Alan Haselhurst for leading the debate in his capacity as chairperson of the CPA international executive committee.

As the other speakers have all done, I begin by emphasising the value of the Commonwealth and underlining the importance of Commonwealth day as an occasion to celebrate both the unity and diversity of our 53 independent countries. Other speakers said they feel the closest connection with Commonwealth citizens from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. I grew up in an ethnically diverse area and have had most contact with, and feel the strongest connection to, members of the diaspora communities from countries such as Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. When I worked in the City there seemed to be an awful lot of New Zealanders employed on temporary contracts, so I have had a fair bit of contact with New Zealanders. Our connection with the Commonwealth is not just about people in other countries; it is about people from those countries who have chosen to make Britain their home.

This has been an eventful year for the Commonwealth, marked of course by the birth of Prince George and our move even closer towards agreeing the new laws of succession. Fifteen of the 16 Commonwealth realms have agreed a new law to end male primogeniture and the bar on marrying Roman Catholics, which is a welcome step forward. Less positively, Gambia has withdrawn from the association. The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka last November created some division, to which I will return, and led to Mauritius withdrawing as host of CHOGM 2015.

The theme of this year’s Commonwealth day, “Team Commonwealth,” indicates the association’s strong bonds, and it is particularly apt as we look forward to the Commonwealth games in Glasgow this summer. A team is a good analogy for the Commonwealth; it signifies our collaboration and indicates how each and every member is important and has its own role to play. It means that we can celebrate our successes together and that we pull together when times are tough. It also means that we speak frankly and offer our support when a team member could do better. Like the Commonwealth, every team needs rules, which is why I make no apology for concentrating on what I see as scope for improvement. Teams ought to push each other to achieve more, which is what the Commonwealth must do for each member state.

Some of these points were addressed in our debate on human rights in the Commonwealth towards the end of last year, but it is important that they are placed on the record again, given that the situation has not improved. It is now a year since the Commonwealth charter was launched, which was a significant achievement. It was the first time in 64 years that the Commonwealth’s shared values have been set out in writing.

Those shared values attempt to balance the autonomy and differing cultures of many sovereign states. As I said in the debate on human rights in the Commonwealth, agreeing to the charter was not enough and cannot be enough; it was a blueprint for action, not a statement of the status quo. The charter was the start of a process to promote democracy, equality and human rights within the Commonwealth.

There is progress to be made across a range of areas, including gender equality—which was mentioned by Sir Malcolm Bruce—sexual violence and the death penalty. At 10 pm British time tonight, 6 am on Friday in Malaysia, a Nigerian national with schizophrenia is due to be executed for a murder committed 18 years ago. I flagged that up with the Minister when I arrived in the Chamber, and I hope he can update us on whether the British Government have made representations to the Malaysian Government on preventing that execution. We should all oppose the death penalty in any circumstance, but a mentally ill man is due to be executed, so it is a particularly important case.

There are many important human rights issues, but I make no apologies for focusing today on what was described as the “elephant in the room” by Dr Purna Sen, the former head of human rights at the Commonwealth secretariat, in the recent Kaleidoscope Trust report, “Speaking Out: The rights of LGBTI citizens from across the Commonwealth.” Globally, more than half the countries that criminalise homosexuality are in the Commonwealth, and they make up 41 of the 53 Commonwealth nations—that is nearly 80% of the association. We should not be afraid to stand up and say categorically that that is wrong. The issue was debated when I spoke about the charter at the CPA conference in Johannesburg in September, and it was discussed in the Westminster Hall debate, too.

I know there is a concern about being seen to go in and preach to other countries, particularly those countries where we instilled certain values. There has been some interesting research in Uganda on how homosexuality was accepted until the British came in, told people that it was not acceptable and introduced laws against it during the period of colonial rule. When I raised that point at the CPA conference in South Africa in September, it was not well received by all delegates. As Andrew Percy said in an intervention, the point was supported by my co-speaker, the Deputy Speaker of the South African Parliament. She spoke eloquently about her country’s rainbow constitution and opposition to all forms of discrimination. She said that, in South Africa, LGBT discrimination was seen as akin to apartheid, which was once seen as acceptable by many and is now viewed as abhorrent by all but a few. That does not necessarily translate into perfection on the ground, however. There have been instances of corrective rape and discrimination against LGBT people, but the law sets a strong framework.

Other countries are not making such good progress, however. The Australian High Court recently overturned legislation in Parliament allowing for same-sex marriages. India has recriminalised homosexuality following its Supreme Court reinstating in December a ban on same-sex relationships—a decision refused review earlier this year despite applications from campaigners and the Indian Government. Nigeria has passed a same-sex marriage prohibition law, meaning not only that same-sex marriage is punishable by 14 years in prison, but also that same-sex relationships or participation in gay clubs or organisations are also subject to 10-year prison terms. There are reports that men arrested since the new law was passed have been publicly whipped and there have been claims that confessions have been forced by physical interrogation. The Kaleidoscope Trust quotes a human rights lawyer in Cameroon who explains that LGBT people

“are generally considered as animals or devils… so they are in permanent danger. They can be injured, they can be killed, and they can be discriminated against. They can be rejected from healthcare and justice”.

Most notorious, as we heard in a good speech from my hon. Friend Pamela Nash, is Uganda, which has now passed the long-feared Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda, but the penalties have now been increased to life imprisonment. Indeed, it was mooted at one point that the punishment ought to be the death penalty. I have also had the privilege of meeting Dr Frank Mugisha of Sexual Minorities Uganda on a couple of occasions, and I understand that he met Baroness Warsi yesterday. I hope that it proved a productive meeting, because, although I know that the Foreign Secretary noted his sadness and disappointment that the Bill was signed into law by President Museveni, some concerns have been expressed to me that the UK’s response has been relatively muted. As my hon. Friend said, serious concerns exist that the law represents a public health threat as NGOs, including international organisations that provide health promotion and HIV/AIDS prevention, may be forced to close to avoid criminal sanctions.

In its 2011 report, “Time for Urgent Reform”, the Commonwealth eminent persons group encouraged

“the repeal of discriminatory laws that impede the effective response of Commonwealth countries to the HIV/AIDS epidemic” and cited United Nations Development Programme evidence that the Commonwealth is home to

“over 60% of people living with HIV”.

The issue should therefore be a priority for the Commonwealth. Several other countries, not least the US, have made it clear that they are undertaking a wholesale review of their relationship with Uganda, and the World Bank has postponed a $90 million loan to the country. Some have called for all aid for Uganda to be reviewed, but only a small proportion of UK aid actually goes into direct budget support for the Ugandan Government and it is linked to trying to improve parliamentary democracy. If aid is reviewed as part of the lobbying on the issue, it is imperative that it should not hurt the people that UK assistance aims to help and that the Government continue their support for LGBT groups and human rights defenders in Uganda, to which they have recently committed.

To conclude on Uganda, there have been calls for travel bans, in particular for the members of the Ugandan Government and Parliament who championed the new law. What measures or sanctions does the Minister think could be effective in trying to turn Uganda’s position around? What action could the ministerial action group take? What penalties would he like for countries that violate the values of the Commonwealth charter—if, indeed, he sees the charter as something that should be enforced?

As I mentioned, there were concerns that last year’s CHOGM risked undermining the Commonwealth’s commitment to human rights, given the ongoing abuses in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Government’s failure to deliver truth, justice and accountability. Can the Minister update us on the Prime Minister’s efforts to secure an international inquiry for the people of Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council this month? What efforts have the Government made to secure action from the Commonwealth on that? I have spoken several times in this place about Sri Lanka, and the issue is ongoing, so I will leave it there, rather than outline my concerns.

The final issue that I want to flag up is the need for collective action on climate change. The Commonwealth is an appropriate forum for that, although we should be doing it on a wider scale, too. Bangladesh tops the climate risk index as the country most affected by climate change. India is in the top 10 as well. In the Maldives in 2009, as people might remember, then President Nasheed held his Cabinet meeting underwater with scuba gear to try to focus the world’s attention on the grim reality of climate change. Countries such as the Maldives could be entirely submerged underwater within just a few generations with just a 1 metre rise in sea levels. The Maldives are the lowest lying country in the world, with an average height of less than 1.3 metres above sea level.

The challenge of climate change is not something that any state can overcome alone. The Commonwealth must renew efforts to press for multilateral co-operation and concerted collective action to reduce carbon emissions, to limit rises in sea levels and to safeguard habitats. At CHOGM, Australia and Canada disappointingly declined to support a green capital fund. Last month, GLOBE International published a report on 66 countries’ climate change laws and highlighted that only the Australian Government sought to repeal national legislation in the past year. Australia and Canada are the only nations to have reversed significant climate laws since GLOBE International began its monitoring four years ago. Will the Minister tell us whether he agrees with Lord Deben, the former Conservative Secretary of State for the Environment, who said that Australia’s move was

“so unintellectual as to be unacceptable”?

By contrast, the report noted Kenya’s new climate change plan. Kenya, along with Mozambique and Nigeria, was included among the eight countries to have passed flagship legislation. Tanzania passed a national strategy and Rwanda was noted for including climate change and the environment as a cross-cutting issue in its economic development and poverty reduction strategy. The report concluded that the momentum for climate change legislation is moving from the wealthier, industrialised nations to emerging economies. I hope that the Minister agrees that all Commonwealth nations need to work together, as set out in the Commonwealth charter, to protect the environment through

“multilateral cooperation, sustained commitment and collective action…and facilitating the development, diffusion and deployment of affordable environmentally friendly technologies and renewable energy”.

Will the Minister update us on how the Government are pushing for more action from the Commonwealth on climate change? To what extent is there is a consensus on the scientific facts of climate change and concerted action? I am particularly worried by reports that Prime Minister Tony Abbott is seeking to abolish Australia’s independent Climate Change Authority. Its chairman has reportedly said that the “bad guys” are winning the climate change debate with “brazen falsehoods”, “untruths” and “misinformation”. It is essential that the UK plays a global role in challenging the misinformation and efforts to dismiss climate change science, not least within our own country.

I realise that I have perhaps focused on the negative to too great an extent, but if we value the Commonwealth and want it to have a respected voice on the world stage and a continued purpose in the 21st century, we have to ensure that it remains relevant. To do that, we must continually ask more of it and ourselves. I welcome the Commonwealth charter as a mechanism for raising the Commonwealth’s expectations, but if we do not meet the high standards that it sets, it risks being used to conceal abuses. When we come back to this issue next year to celebrate Commonwealth day, as I am sure we will, I hope we will be discussing how those standards are not only being met, but surpassed.