Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, Foreign Secretary, makes his maiden speech in the House of Lords

Table of contents

The sections below provide summary information and suggested reading on each subject area to assist members of the House of Lords ahead of the scheduled question time.

1. Rohingya refugees

The Lord Bishop of St Albans to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs what steps he is taking to address the Rohingya refugee crisis.

1.1 Summary

The Rohingya, a predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic minority mainly from Rakhine state in western Myanmar, have faced decades of government-sponsored persecution in their Buddhist-majority homeland which has effectively left the community stateless.[1] In 2017 more than 700,000 Rohingya fled an outbreak of violence in Myanmar to seek refuge in the Cox’s Bazar area of Bangladesh, where a significant Rohingya refugee population already resided following previous waves of displacement.[2] Today, almost 1 million Rohingya refugees are thought to reside in Bangladesh, either in the Cox’s Bazar area—now constituting the world’s largest refugee settlement—or on Bhashan Char, a remote silt island in the Bay of Bengal.[3] Other Rohingya refugees have sought refuge in Malaysia, India, Thailand and Indonesia. Human Rights Watch estimates that around 600,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, a significant proportion of whom live in internal displacement camps.[4]

The UK government’s most recent human rights and democracy report said that the UK supported Bangladesh’s continued hosting of Rohingya refugees displaced from Myanmar.[5] In December 2023, Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon described the UK as a “leading donor” to the Rohingya response in Bangladesh, having so far provided “over £373mn in humanitarian support for the crisis since 2017”.[6] At the second Global Refugee Forum held the same month, the UK government reaffirmed its commitment to “supporting the Rohingya and their hosting states”.[7]

1.2 Read more

2. Ceasefire in Gaza

Baroness Janke (Liberal Democrat) to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs what progress has been made in securing a lasting ceasefire arrangement between Israel and Gaza.

2.1 Summary

The conflict in Gaza—which began when the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise assault on Israeli territory and was followed by a large-scale incursion into the Gaza strip by Israeli forces—continues, with little end in sight. Civilian casualties from the fighting are high and continue to grow daily. Figures collated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, whilst contested, currently put the death toll at 23,469 Palestinians killed in Gaza and 59,604 injured.[8] According to the Israeli military, 184 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 1,085 injured in Gaza.[9] 136 hostages, both Israelis and foreign nationals, are estimated to remain in Gaza.[10] Humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire, and there have been recent warnings that half of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents are at risk of starvation.[11]

The loss of life and conditions inside Gaza have led to calls for both temporary cessations in the fighting to allow for more humanitarian assistance to enter the territory, and for a longer-term ceasefire. A seven-day ceasefire expired on 1 December 2023, and fighting has continued since that point without respite, with both sides trading blame for the resumption of hostilities.[12] On 12 December 2023, the UN General Assembly voted in favour of an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access”.[13] However, Israel has rejected such a proposal and a similar motion was vetoed at the UN Security Council by the United States on 9 December 2023.[14] The White House has continued to resist calls to support an immediate ceasefire, including from some congressional Democrats.[15]

The UK government has also not supported an immediate ceasefire.[16] Instead, UK officials have said that the government supports a “sustainable ceasefire”, where “hostages are released, more aid can get in and Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel”.[17]

2.2 Read more

3. Sustainable development goals

Lord Collins of Highbury (Labour) to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs what steps he is taking to promote the implementation of the UN sustainable development goals.

3.1 Summary

There are 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) contained within ‘The 2030 agenda for sustainable development’, adopted by all United Nations member states in 2015.[18] The SDGs are underpinned by 169 targets which address a wide range of issues facing both developed and developing countries, from poverty and education to food security and climate change.

2023 marked the halfway point towards the intended delivery of the goals by 2030. In its most recent progress report on the SDGs in July 2023, the United Nations voiced significant concern on the likelihood that they would be met.[19] Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres said that progress on more than 50 percent of targets of the SDGs was “weak and insufficient”. On 30 percent, including key targets on poverty, hunger, and climate, he said progress had “stalled or gone into reverse”.

The UK government has said that it remains committed to the SDGs but has acknowledged that progress is lacking. In the 2023 international development white paper, Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell said the world was falling “woefully behind” when it came to meeting the SDGs.[20] The white paper set out an agenda to ‘re-energise’ international development and progress towards the SDGs, including going further and faster to mobilise international finance and harnessing innovation and new technologies.

3.2 Read more

4. Rules-based international order

Baroness Chakrabarti (Labour) to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs what steps he is taking to champion a rules-based international order.

4.1 Summary

The concept of a rules-based international order (RBIO) is broadly understood to mean the framework of political, legal and economic rules established following the second world war.[21] For example, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has described it as a “system of laws, agreements, principles and institutions that the world came together to build after two world wars to manage relations between states, to prevent conflict, to uphold the rights of all people”.[22] However, some scholars dispute that there is a single rules-based international order, or any kind of rules-based global order at all.[23]

The UK government has recognised the concept of a rules-based international order since at least 2015, when the ‘National security strategy and strategic defence and security review’ published that year defined the RBIO as “founded on relationships between states and through international institutions, with shared rules and agreements on behaviour”.[24]

The government’s 2023 refresh of its integrated review of security, defence, development and foreign policy priorities committed the UK to working to:

[…] shape an open and stable international order of well-managed cooperation and competition between sovereign states on the basis of reciprocity, norms of responsible behaviour and respect for the fundamental principles of the UN charter and international law.[25]

4.2 Read more

Cover image © House of Lords 2023 / photography by Annabel Moeller.

References

  1. Council on Foreign Relations, ‘Rohingya crisis’, updated 23 January 2020. Return to text
  2. US Congressional Research Service, ‘Burma: Background and US relations’, 21 February 2023; and Unicef, ‘Rohingya crisis’, updated 8 January 2024. Return to text
  3. US Congressional Research Service, ‘Burma: Background and US relations’, 21 February 2023; and ‘Bangladesh’, updated 13 December 2023. Return to text
  4. As above; and Human Rights Watch, ‘Rohingya’, accessed 11 January 2024. Return to text
  5. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, ‘Human rights and democracy report 2022’, 13 July 2023, CP 886, p 49. Return to text
  6. House of Lords, ‘Written question: Bangladesh—Rohingya (HL986)’, 21 December 2023. Return to text
  7. House of Commons, ‘Written statement: Global Refugee Forum 2023 (HCWS172)’, 9 January 2024. Return to text
  8. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ‘Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel: Reported impact’, 11 January 2024. Return to text
  9. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ‘Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel: Flash update #90’, 11 January 2024. Return to text
  10. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ‘Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel: Reported impact’, 11 January 2024. Return to text
  11. Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), ‘Gaza Strip: IPC acute food insecurity, November 2023–February 2024’, 21 December 2023. Return to text
  12. BBC News, ‘Why has the Gaza ceasefire come to an end?’, 1 December 2023. Return to text
  13. UN News, ‘UN General Assembly votes by large majority for immediate humanitarian ceasefire during emergency session’, 12 December 2023. Return to text
  14. Associated Press, ‘US vetoes UN resolution backed by many nations demanding immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza’, 9 December 2023; and Middle East Monitor, ‘Israel rejects UN resolution calling for ceasefire in Gaza’, 14 December 2023. Return to text
  15. Guardian, ‘Ex-White House interns urge Biden to support immediate ceasefire in Gaza’, 8 January 2024. Return to text
  16. HC Hansard, 8 January 2024, col 34. Return to text
  17. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, ‘The UK supports calls for a sustainable ceasefire: UK statement at the UN General Assembly’, 15 December 2023. Return to text
  18. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ‘Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development’, 2015. Return to text
  19. United Nations, ‘The sustainable development goals report 2023: Special edition’, 10 July 2023. Return to text
  20. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, ‘International development in a contested world: Ending extreme poverty and tackling climate change’, November 2023, CP 975. Return to text
  21. House of Lords Library, ‘Populism and nationalism: Implications for the international order’, 12 January 2017; and Chatham House, ‘London Conference 2015: Challenges to the rules-based international order’, 2015. Return to text
  22. Gideon Rachman, ‘Is there such a thing as a rules-based international order?’, Financial Times (£), 20 April 2023. Return to text
  23. See, for example: Patrick Porter, ‘Sorry, folks. There is no rules-based world order’, National Interest, 28 August 2016; and Malcolm Chalmers, ‘Which rules? Why there is no single ‘rules-based international system’, Royal United Services Institute, April 2019. Return to text
  24. HM Government, ‘National security strategy and strategic defence and security review’, 23 November 2015, Cm 9161, p 20. Return to text
  25. HM Government, ‘Integrated review refresh 2023: Responding to a more contested and volatile world’, 13 March 2023, CP 811, p 19. Return to text