PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Equal Rights Coalition - 26 February 2019 (Commons/Commons Chamber)
Debate Detail
Contributions from Dame Harriett Baldwin, are highlighted with a yellow border.
Nick Herbert
Arundel and South Downs
12:14:52
Harriett Baldwin
The Minister for Africa
The UK looks forward to co-chairing the Equal Rights Coalition with Argentina from May this year. We will use our role to promote and protect LGBT rights globally.
12:15:16
Nick Herbert
I thank the Minister for that answer. It is good news that the UK is taking over this role, but the Equal Rights Coalition is in its infancy and needs more work to ensure that the global fight for LGBT rights is effective. Will the Minister assure me that she will commit sufficient resources to the UK’s chairmanship of the Equal Rights Coalition and ensure effective co-ordination between Departments in this important year?
12:15:46
Harriett Baldwin
I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend’s leadership and to his all-party parliamentary group on global lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights for drawing cross-Government work together. I can assure him, on behalf of both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development, that we will certainly give the organisation the resourcing it needs. He will be aware that its work fits in with the Equalities Office’s overall strategy, including the international element.
Gerald Jones
Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney
We have seen a repressive crackdown on the LGBT community in Egypt, with routine detentions even for waving rainbow flags on social media. What can the Minister do to raise such concerns? Does she still believe, as the previous Foreign Secretary claimed, that—[Interruption.]
12:16:02
Mr Speaker
Blurt it out, man; don’t be distracted.
12:16:14
Gerald Jones
Does she still believe, as the previous Foreign Secretary claimed, that the UK should act as a champion for the Sisi regime that is carrying out the repression?
12:16:36
Harriett Baldwin
I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Middle East and our ambassador to Egypt regularly raise the examples that the hon. Gentleman cites as part of the ongoing engagement with the Egyptian Government.
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