Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws — Hansard

Lords Proceedings 6 July 2026 4 contributions

West Bank: Purchase of Settlement Land and Property

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reply, but it really is time to match words with actions. There is evidence of purchasing of homes and property on the West Bank in the Occupied Territories. We cannot have British citizens being complicit in violations of international law, and the purchase of…

In 1968, he advised the Government of Israel that the creation of settlements in the Occupied Territories would be contrary to international law, then and now. If only the Israeli Government had listened.

+2 more contributions in this session

Lords Proceedings 30 June 2026

Women’s Representation in Peace Processes

The Minister has given us a list of places where terrible conflicts have taken place. I noticed that Gaza was not included. A rather nonsensical peace board has been created. It would be interesting to hear how many women are involved in that, never mind the absence of Palestinians. What do the Gove…

Lords Proceedings 9 June 2026

British Council

My Lords, I had the great privilege, from 1998 until 2004, of being the chair of the British Council. Sometimes, it is useful to draw on one’s institutional memory. The reason that the British Council was set up in the middle of the 1930s was to share British values, as we saw the rise of fascism an…

Lords Proceedings 4 June 2026

Combating Atrocity Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Alton, my great friend, for securing this debate and congratulate him on introducing his Genocide Determination Bill this morning. I will of course be supporting him. Only a few years ago, I, too, promoted a genocide prevention and response Bill. It completed …

Lords Proceedings 18 May 2026

King’s Speech

My Lords, I add my voice in expressing my gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Hennessy. The noble Lord gave us a great reminder of the bizarre ways in which our constitution has come into being by historically adding lots of small entities and having norms and customs. He reminded us that unpicking th…

Lords Proceedings 18 May 2026

King’s Speech

My Lords, I add my voice in expressing my gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Hennessy. The noble Lord gave us a great reminder of the bizarre ways in which our constitution has come into being by historically adding lots of small entities and having norms and customs. He reminded us that unpicking th…

Lords Debate 27 April 2026

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Thank you very much.

Lords Oral Questions 17 March 2026

BBC World Service: Sustainability

I will look into the issue that my noble friend raises. I was not aware of it, but I will make sure that officials and the relevant Ministers attend to that.

Lords Proceedings 24 February 2026

Labour Together and APCO Worldwide: Cabinet Office Review

My Lords, I cannot begin to express how appalled I am that attacks should have been made upon independent journalists investigating a matter which was a legitimate matter to be investigated by the media. I should declare immediately that I am on the high-level legal panel that advises the Media Free…

Lords Debate 5 February 2026

Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, I support the noble Lord. This legislation presents a unique opportunity to close long-outstanding accountability gaps in the UK’s universal jurisdiction laws and ensure that the perpetrators of the world’s most serious crimes can be brought to justice on British soil, which is not always …

Lords Proceedings 12 January 2026 2 contributions

Iran: Protests

My Lords, I should declare that I am the director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, which has been monitoring human rights abuses in Iran for many years. A grave human rights crisis is unfolding in Iran. As many noble Lords will know, a nationwide uprising has been taki…

I am grateful to my noble friend for her Question and commend her for her many years of work and dedication to this issue, and to the people of Iran. We too are deeply concerned about the use of violence against protesters and strongly condemn the killing of protesters. Iranians must be able to exer…

Lords Proceedings 17 December 2025 2 contributions

Jimmy Lai Conviction

My Lords—

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Alton, I have been involved with the arrest and subsequent trial of Jimmy Lai. I too am a patron of Hong Kong Watch. I am also on the Joint Committee on Human Rights, and members of my chambers have been acting for Jimmy Lai in his case internationally. I want to…

Lords Debate 9 December 2025

Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, when I became a practitioner at the Bar as a young woman in the late 1970s, freedom of expression was regularly used as the excuse to justify sometimes horrific porn. When there were discussions about this among lawyers, it was almost invariably said that women were being prudish and did n…

Lords Proceedings 20 October 2025 2 contributions

Official Secret Act Case: Witness Statements

My Lords, does the Minister agree that the charges were brought under the Official Secrets Act, which dates from the beginning of the 20th century, which is one of the reasons it was changed? Unfortunately, the charges were brought when it was still running and in existence. Certainly in the beginni…

Not the independence of the CPS.

Lords Debate 16 October 2025

Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, I declare an interest as a president of the Local Government Association and chair of the Duke of Edinburgh awards. While I broadly welcome this Bill, I have a number of reservations—but I strongly support the work of the noble Baroness, Lady Bertin, on tackling pornography. I am sorry th…

Lords Committee Stage 9 September 2025 3 contributions

Daesh Crimes: Accountability (JCHR Report)

My Lords, it is my honour to introduce the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report, Accountability for Daesh Crimes ; it is the JCHR’s second report of the 2024-25 Session, which started last December. In this work, our committee held six oral evidence sessions and heard from expert witnesses and in…

My Lords, it is a privilege to follow the noble Baroness, as we do week after week in the operation of the Select Committee. I have been in touch with our chair, the noble Lord, Lord Alton. He said to me that he was particularly moved by a visit he made in 2019 to Sinjar in northern Iraq, where he …

+1 more contribution in this session

Lords Debate 8 September 2025 3 contributions

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I want to reiterate what has just been said on Amendment 153. Like the previous speaker, I too have had experience of dealing with domestic servitude. I chaired an inquiry for the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Scotland which was dealing with trafficking more generally. It came as…

My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 203B and 203C in this grouping, which I have signed, but I am largely speaking on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Alton, who, as noble Lords have heard, has been involved in quite a serious accident where it was very lucky that lives were not lost. It was the rece…

+1 more contribution in this session

Lords Debate 19 May 2025 2 contributions

Employment Rights Bill

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 101 in my name, in which I am joined, as we have heard, by the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, but also by the noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, who, of course, was the leader of the TUC, and by the noble Baroness, Lady Morrissey, from the world of finance and business. …

May I just add to that? My concern is that my noble friend Lady Chakrabarti is right that, in law, one should not use contractual agreements to avoid criminal processes. However, you do not have criminal processes unless you have a complainant, and often women do not want to go through that process.…

Lords Oral Questions 1 May 2025

NHS: Single-sex Spaces for Staff

My Lords, we are in a mess. We all care about trans people, and we all care about biological women and all the problems that women have suffered over the years. But even as we speak, senior legal officials and estates and facilities managers are racing to draw up proposals for how hospitals, communi…