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Lord Ramsbotham: My Lords, I am sure that all those interested in defence will welcome the strategy and I associate myself with the remarks made by the noble Lords, Lord Astor and Lord Garden, who have already congratulated the Minister on its production.
I do not know whether the Minister has read a recently published book, entitled The Utility of Force, by General Sir Rupert Smith in which he refers to two types of warfare: industrial warfare between industrial nations, which used to feature but virtually ended after the Second World War; and what we are currently engaged in, which he describes as war among the people, which requires very different techniques as well as equipment. My late boss, the Lord Field Marshal Lord Carver, used to say that there were two definitions of affordability: can you afford it; and can you afford to give up what you must to afford it?
What I am interested in and look forward to in the debate about the strategy is that we have heard about expensive platforms, some of which were introduced during the time of industrial war, rather than war among the people. We have not heard much about the equipment for the people who are involved in the conflict. The Minister will remember the days of the last Gulf War, when we heard far more about concerns about boots, flak jackets and clothing for the men than we did about equipment.
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So I hope that, when we debate the strategy, leeway will be allowed in future for affordability, to satisfy the needs of the people who have to carry out whichever policies the Government require them to exercise.
Lord Drayson: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord and I will certainly read the book which he mentioned; I have not read it. I will take on board the points that the noble Lord made relating to affordability. He makes a central point, but I hope that he finds that the Defence Industrial Strategy, when he reads it in full, explores both that and the balance between the need to be able to meet the threat now emerging as well as those from the past which one would regard as more traditional.
Honour Killings
2.50 pm
Lord Russell-Johnston rose to call attention to the practice of honour killings and their incidence in the United Kingdom; and to move for Papers.
The noble Lord said: My Lords, it may sound a rather banal way to begin, but the principal driving force of my political life has simply been to try my best to provide comfort, release and hope to people who are unhappy or badly treated. I believe that it is a human right to live this short life that we have without fear or bullying or, worse, persecution and to be able, in our individual ways, to understand and experience the meaning of words such as joy and delight—not to mention security, independence and the freedom to choose one's way forward.
The practice of so-called honour killing rejects all these concepts. It is a vile and cruel practice in which the victims are, not always but in the great majority, girls and women. They are accused of bringing shame on their families and their community by their behaviour. That can range from chatting to a male neighbour to rejecting a forced marriage or having sexual relations outside marriage. It includes rape; rape for which the girl is blamed. It is rooted in concepts of male dominance and the right to expect total obedience from the female—concepts going back to the Stone Age.
According to the United Nations, which has done a series of reports on this question worldwide, some 5,000 women are killed to cleanse honour each year. That, being based on official figures, is almost certainly a considerable underestimate. Neither does it take account of suicides. They are high among Asian women; that is also true in the United Kingdom. In England and Wales, for example, between 1988 and 1992, of 1,979 women between the ages of 15 and 34 who killed themselves, 85 were Asian. That figure is nearly double their proportion of the population. Significantly, it was found at the same time that the situation was reversed for young Asian males, who were less at risk than European men.
So-called honour killing is a practice originating primarily in Middle East or near Middle East countries; Pakistan, Turkey—notably the eastern
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Kurdish area, which I have visited and where I have spoken to women campaigning against the practice—Iran, Iraq and Jordan, which, to its shame, has laws mitigating punishment for such killings. It is now being recorded in European countries with sizeable immigrant populations such as Germany, where a trial is underway in Berlin, France and the Netherlands as well as the United Kingdom. My first question therefore is to ask the Minister whether there is any co-operation at European Union level in respect of ways to reduce and eventually to eradicate this evil.
I am not an expert. I came to the issue quite a long time ago, through a debate in the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe on a report on so-called honour killing drawn up by Ann Cryer, the Labour Member for Keighley. I want to pay the warmest tribute to Ann, who has campaigned against this malevolence not just in faraway Strasbourg but among her own constituents, among some of whom it is accepted.
Much later, I read an article in the Evening Standard by Diana Nammi, who runs the Iranian and Kurdish women's rights organisation in Islington, where she helps women fleeing from abuse. I contacted her, which led to our debate. She is a lady much to be admired for what she does. Then I met the brave and resourceful Jasvinder Sanghera of Karma Nirvana, the Derby refuge where they see 60 girls each month seeking help from abuse. I have visited Bradford, meeting Philip Balmforth—probably the most experienced United Kingdom police officer in this field. Here in London, Detective Inspector Brent Hyatt was hugely helpful. He, by the way, is on honeymoon; I am sure we would wish him every happiness.
The more that I have explored the question, the more my horror has grown and, indeed, my anger. Let me give noble Lords some examples. First, the issue of honour killing in the United Kingdom was really first brought to the fore in the media through the trial of Abdalla Yones, a Kurdish immigrant who killed his 16 year-old daughter Heshu. She was a lively, intelligent girl; full of fun, she liked western dress and customs and did not want to accept a forced marriage. She rebelled against her father and one day he stabbed her to death. I saw pictures of it. She had over 40 stab wounds, and doctors estimated that she did not die at once, but lay for 15 minutes or thereabouts in the greatest pain until she died from loss of blood. Her father, in pursuit of his well-prepared cover story, said that an intruder had done it all. He jumped over the balcony and injured himself. However, on recovery he was brought to trial and is presently serving 10 years in prison.
Three things emerged from that case. First, the judge said in sentencing Abdalla Yones that he took account of cultural traditions in passing sentence. That is wrong and should not be allowed. Murder is murder and cruelty is cruelty. The cultural tradition which we respect is the human rights tradition. Perhaps it is, to some extent, being corrected now; I noticed that, in a case only three days ago here in London, the judge said
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something very much to that effect. Secondly, what emerged was that, as far as I know, no Kurdish communal nor Kurdish Muslim religious leader condemned the murder. What is the Minister's experience of community and religious co-operation in this question? Thirdly, the girl's brother and mother defended the killer husband and lied persistently in his support. We must realise that the practice is deeply ingrained in the mindset of some.
To underline these three points, let me instance the case of Rukshana Naz in Derby in 1998. Rukshana was forced into marriage and became pregnant. Her mother suspected her of having a relationship outside the marriage which could have been, though it was never proven, the cause of the pregnancy. When seven months pregnant, the mother gave the girl a choice: abort the child or be killed. The girl refused to abort. She was taken to a cellar where the mother sat on her legs while her younger brother strangled her and a still younger brother watched. The mother was let off with manslaughter, which follows the pattern I referred to in the first case. The son got life. Very often in these cases it is the youngest in the family who is chosen to do the crime because the youngest one will be given the lightest sentence. Can the Minister ensure that there is exclusion of mitigating circumstances of this kind? It is common in such cases for a family conclave to be involved. The whole family, often dominated by the father or husband, makes the decision. All the family members are thereby involved in that decision and should take some responsibility for it.
Thirdly, I take the case of Jack and Zena Briggs. I have met Jack and have spoken to Zena on the telephone. They met, fell in love and married, and later wrote a book together. The introduction is written by John McCarthy, whom all noble Lords will remember. For 14 years they have lived on the run, hiding and moving from one safe house to another. They are never sure if it is safe. They are being hunted. This is happening in Britain. They are the target of bounty hunters, people who are willing to commit such killings on behalf of the family for money.
I have spoken for 11 minutes and time is running out. I shall reach some conclusions and ask a few further questions. First, I think that forced marriage should be made illegal. I know that the Home Office is taking evidence on this question and that people such as Mr Balmforth, who are highly knowledgeable in the field, oppose it because they think that it would not be effective. Last week the noble Baroness, Lady Rendell, raised the issue of genital mutilation. I am pleased to see the noble Baroness in the Chamber. I do not think that the fact that no prosecutions have yet been instigated is an argument against outlawing the practice. The same, in my opinion, applies to forced marriage.
I turn to a very good leaflet produced by the Foreign Office entitled Forced Marriages Abroad: your right to choose. It states:
I do not want to see the words "may be". It should say that they are in breach of the law. That would give strength to a girl wishing to seek help. I understand that over the past few years some 140 girls have been preserved from this situation by the actions of the Foreign Office.
Incidentally, I am told of some schools in Derby in particular, but perhaps elsewhere as well, where this leaflet is not distributed for fear of causing offence. That is wrong. The leaflet should be freely available. While on education, action should be taken to stop the removal of girls from schools, sometimes before they reach the age of 16, to be taken to another country ostensibly for a holiday but in reality to be forced into marriage. Over the past 10 years in Bradford, 150 Asian girls have simply disappeared from the education register while the numbers for Asian males have remained constant.
I know that great efforts are being made. Guidelines are being produced by the Home Office and the police, but there is no actual duty to implement and, I understand, no effective method of monitoring the practice. More work is needed among the police, social services and teachers. Andy Baker's work, which has been tremendous, must not be allowed to slide. Moreover, my statistics cover England and Wales, but it would be interesting to know what is happening in Scotland and Northern Ireland. What is the total figure for the United Kingdom? I am told that last year some 12 honour killings took place.
Direct and open discussions should be instigated with communal and religious leaders to seek their active co-operation. More resources have to be made available to help girls in flight from the fear of abuse or worse. Secure accommodation must be made available to them, not hostels, and perhaps counselling support. We are presented here with the maintenance and defence by immigrant communities of abhorrent practices which run contrary to the values we have evolved and hold dear. As a liberal it might be said that I am soft on those seeking asylum from prosecution, but I am not soft on the importation of barbarism, of which there should be zero tolerance.
I end with a quotation from Kofi Annan:
"Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation, and it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development, and peace".
3.6 pm
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