We will now move to the short debate in the name of Joyce Watson. If you’re leaving the Chamber, can you do so quietly, please? Sorry, if Members are going, can they go quietly, please, and quickly? Thank you. We move to the short debate, which is by Joyce Watson on a topic she has chosen, Common Cause: Women, Wales and the Commonwealth—the Role of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians in the Post-Brexit Era’. I call on Joyce Watson to speak to the topic she has chosen. Joyce.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m pleased to bring forward this topic for debate this evening, and I thank Members for their expression of interest in contributing to what I’m sure will be an interesting and worthwhile discussion. I’m allowing time for Rhun ap Iorwerth, Rhianon Passmore, and Suzy Davies to make contributions, and I look forward to hearing from them.

During a 1962 House of Lords debate concerning British entry into the Common Market, a sceptical Clement Attlee said, and I quote:

‘it is really an extraordinary change. We used to put the Commonwealth first. It is quite obvious now that the Commonwealth comes second. We are going to be closer friends with the Germans, the Italians and the French than we are with the Australians or the Canadians. People are talking about what will happen thirty years hence: but…twenty years ago I should never have imagined that we would be putting, as close friends, the Germans in front of the Canadians, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the Indians or anyone else…. It is…an entire revolution in the historic position of this country. I am not putting it forward that necessarily old things are right…. It may be they are right; but make no mistake: this is an enormous change.’

Well, 20 years ago, I would never have imagined that we would be leaving the European Union, but here we are. Attlee also had views about the mechanism that delivered us here—referenda—but I’m not going into all that again. So, as we prepare to leave the EU we face another enormous change: another revolution in the historic position of this country, but we must not leave behind those friendships as part of the European Union, and that we hold on to our place in the Commonwealth. After all, likewise, outside the EU, we must maintain our place in Europe.

I certainly support the view that the great challenge of our time is to maintain Britain and Wales’s place in the world as an open, tolerant and outward-looking country. Amber Rudd’s nativist speech to the Conservative party last week was a shot across the bows on that front. Thankfully, she has u-turned on plans to force companies to disclose how many foreign workers they employ. Nevertheless, it is alarming for me that a British Home Secretary should float such an idea in the very first place. Wales must challenge this new snarling world view. Of course, we must work to shape the Brexit negotiations to bend it towards our best interests, but I also believe that there is a big opportunity for us now within the Commonwealth.

In May, I was elected by members of the British Islands and Mediterranean region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association to represent their group on the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians international committee—I know that that is a mouthful, but there is no other way of saying it. It is the first time a Member of the National Assembly for Wales has held that position, and it is, indeed, an honour. As I say, as well as regenerating friendships in the EU in light of Brexit, we should also reaffirm and refresh Wales’s Commonwealth connections. But what are they? What is it that we have in common? Born out of an empire, today, the Commonwealth is a family of nations. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association—CPA—comprises of more than 180 branches from legislatures in Africa, Asia, Australia, the British Islands and Mediterranean region, Canada, the Caribbean, the Americas, the Atlantic, India, the Pacific, and south-east Asia. It is a global friendship that is based on values. That is irrespective of gender, race, religion or culture. We are united by our commitment to the rule of law, to individual rights and freedoms, and to the ideals of parliamentary democracy.

Of course, we cannot ignore that some religious and cultural practices in Commonwealth countries victimise and marginalise sections of the population, namely minorities and females, but that is where the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians seek to influence. It was founded by women delegates in 1989, and it has strived since that time to increase women’s representation in parliaments, to mainstream gender consideration in all CPA activities and their programmes, to challenge discrimination, and identify and pursue practical steps to achieve gender equality and the protection and empowerment of both women and girls. In 1991, the Commonwealth enshrined those goals in the Harare declaration.

So, there is an abridged history, but what do we do? Well, I will be working with colleagues to advance three themes: ending violence against women and girls, women in leadership, and women’s economic empowerment. The United Nations’ sustainable development goals do provide a framework for that work. Looking at the current world order, there has been progress: increased female representation in national parliaments, increased enrolment of girls in schools, and a shift in the rights of women, but, if we scratch the surface, in politics, across the Commonwealth, women’s parliamentary representation has plateaued. There is only 22 per cent of national parliamentarians who are female. This institution has a proud record on gender balance, as does my party. We are, within our party, currently one more than half in that make-up, but, if we go close to home, there is only 29 per cent of Members of the House of Commons who are female. There have been, however, important steps forward in Commonwealth countries in recent years: the first woman elected in St Kitts; Trinidad and Tobago reaching a 30 per cent target for female representation; Namibia’s first female Prime Minister; Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointing a gender-balanced Cabinet; Rwanda continuing to lead the world with more than 60 per cent of its Parliament being female; and, yes, the UK has its second female Prime Minister.

But a right gained is not necessarily a right that will be maintained. So, the role of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians is to develop and promote mechanisms to boost and sustain female representation in public life. But that is not an end in itself. When we gain office, we must shape policy and legislation. In this Assembly, my party, as I say, has a good story to tell, but we can’t afford to rest on our laurels. Anyone who was involved in the all-women shortlist will testify how hard-fought the battles have been and it’s an experience that we can share with our friends internationally. Let’s not forget that, in 1992, only 9 per cent of UK MPs were women. It was hard mechanisms; it wasn’t soft rhetoric that got us where we are.

In education, yes, there’s been an overall improvement, yet there will still be more than 63 million girls who won’t be in school today. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 16 million girls between six and 11 will never get the chance to learn to read or write in primary school—and that is twice the number of boys—and education, we all know, is a transformational tool for reducing poverty and inequality. At the same time, we recognise that economic participation and independence are equally important. On that front, I think we need to look at our own record. We know that women in the UK are being hit the hardest by austerity; we know that single mothers and widows are seeing their living standards drop by 20 per cent by 2020 according to the Women’s Budget Group.

Every society has to recognise its own cultural and social road blocks that women must face. In the Commonwealth region that we belong to, we do have close-knit communities—the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Malta, the Isle of Man, St Helena and Falklands—where escaping violence is difficult. So, together, we are sharing ideas about how to protect women and children in those circumstances. Gibraltar has led the way on that. It is one of the reasons that I prioritised working internationally on the White Ribbon campaign, involving men in the movement to stop violence against women.

Following our discussion at the inaugural Commonwealth Women’s Forum held last year in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta, I discovered that it is in Malta the male MPs are now taking a lead role in that campaign. I also found out that Sandra James, a previous parliamentarian in Guernsey, had a campaign about getting more women elected into Guernsey and that has worked as well.

Here, yesterday, I attended an NSPCC event in the Senedd, and they discussed their joint campaign with Bawso working within the Cardiff Somali community to combat female genital mutilation, and that is being progressed by Rebecca Kadaga, the international chair of CWP in Uganda. That is a very brave decision.

We’ve seen Scotland take forward legislation for guardianships for children who arrive in the country unaccompanied. It is the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK that leads an international project on parliamentary oversight of the new sustainable development goals. They are just a few examples, and I can see the clock ticking. But it is by work internationally and our insight and learning that we progress. I feel really very strongly that we cannot and should never, ever reduce our internationalist experience.

My very last statement will be that we are in Wales giving that advantage to young people from Wales, and we are helping, through the Commonwealth Youth Parliament, pupils to have an opportunity to represent Wales at international events, and that happened a couple of years ago with pupils from Ysgol Dyffryn Aman. Coleg Sir Gâr sent students through the Welsh Government’s Wales for Africa programme to help build projects in Uganda. Those experiences, for those young people of Wales to look outwards, not inwards, are absolutely essential. In my opinion, I think that as long as we are members of the CPA, we must embrace it and we must share those experiences.

Very briefly, as the chair of the CPA Assembly branch, I’d like to pay tribute to Joyce Watson for the work that she did as chair during the fourth Assembly. That was a period when the branch did hold the regional British isles and Mediterranean region conference here in the Senedd in 2014. The theme of that conference was fair access to democracy, and promoting the important role that women have to play was a vital part of that conference. I know that Joyce will be pursuing that particular agenda in her role as chair of our region’s female parliamentarians, and we’re very proud of her in her election to that role.

Earlier today, I chaired the cross-party group on international Wales. Encouraging new international links and strengthening current links is going to be crucial for the future of Wales—more important than ever now following the vote to leave the European Union. The Cmmonwealth does offer those links. We should be seeking every opportunity to promote those links.

First of all, thank you, Joyce Watson, for letting me participate in this short debate. I would firstly, though, like to congratulate the Member for Mid and West Wales on her excellent work representing Commonwealth women parliamentarians of the British isles and Mediterranean region on the international Commonwealth parliamentary steering committee—it is a mouthful. It’s fantastic to see a Welsh woman holding this important international role, so well done.

In these post-Brexit times, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association forum being held in Westminster next week will be a welcome opportunity for parliamentarians from across the Commonwealth to come together for harmonious and constructive discussions. As vice-chair of the Assembly’s Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, I’m also determined to ensure that a similar spirit of co-operation and tolerance continues to thrive in Wales, as it has done previously.

Entering the post-Brexit era is an especially pertinent time to recognise the important role of women in advancing welfare and human rights issues up the political agenda, and the work of all of us, irrespective of gender here in the Senedd, is testament to this. Recently, I had the privilege of meeting a delegation from the Botswanan Parliament last month, and they were very impressed with the example set by female parliamentarians in Wales in the Senedd. We are rightfully proud of our excellent gender balance record here. Let us continue to maintain this example for women throughout Wales and, of course, in the Westminster Parliament, the Commonwealth and the wider world. Thank you.

Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. Can I just add my congratulations to Joyce as well? I think it is something that we should all be proud of, but you most of all.

The transfer of languages between generations tends to fall to women—not exclusively, of course—but I’m wondering whether there’s something here that could work to the UK’s advantage post Brexit when it comes to acquired modern foreign languages. These skills, which are represented very fragilely in the school curriculum at the moment, are going to be more important post Brexit, where multilingualism will help us be more attractive as a trading partner, especially as the dominance of English as the lingua franca of Europe may change, of course. And, of course, we’re more aware that Commonwealth countries’ own languages are coming more to the fore on the global stage as well.

I think the position might have equalised somewhat recently, but historically more girls pursued modern foreign language study than boys, and as a result, maybe multilingualism and agile communication generally may have found themselves in that category of undervalued skills associated primarily with women. But they are necessary, not just to trade, but to mutual understanding, and that’s the prerequisite to helping equality and enforcement of rights.

I was just wondering whether you agree that there’s a role for women parliamentarians to raise the status of modern foreign language acquisition, not necessarily through formal education, but for the reasons you give—not as many girls as boys study at all—and to use their own advocacy skills to raise modern foreign languages as an opportunity for women across the globe, but particularly in our relationships with Europe and our Commonwealth cousins. Thank you.

I call on the Minister, Jane Hutt, to reply to the debate. Jane.

I welcome this opportunity to respond to this debate today and I’d like to thank Joyce Watson for her opening address and for the leadership role she’s played and is playing, demonstrated by her commitment to ensuring that the role and influence of Commonwealth women parliamentarians is actually extended and expanded. To have a Welsh woman Assembly Member leading the way and leading this is so well recognised—recognised by Rhun ap Iorwerth, Rhianon Passmore and Suzy Davies today. So, that is the most important starting point.

Of course, this body that you’re so engaged with and have this leadership role in—and indeed, Rhun, in terms of your role, and vice-chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Rhianon—it is instrumental in generating discussion at the highest levels about the many issues and barriers facing women across the Commonwealth, and events across the world. At your conference in February this year on influencing policy and legislation for the empowerment of women, I was delighted to see that Welsh women shared their expertise and experience—Adele Baumgardt on gender budgeting and Dr Alison Parken on employment policies and equal pay. So, you were enabling Welsh women to share their expertise with Commonwealth women parliamentarians. Also at that conference, Joyce shared information—she’s talked about it this afternoon—about our ground-breaking Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015, and our appointment of a national adviser for violence against women.

One of the key roles of the Commonwealth women parliamentarians is to look at ways of increasing the number of women in political and public life. Across the UK and, indeed, here in Wales, women are still under-represented in our political structures and decision-making processes. An absence of women in decision making, a lack of focus on issues that matter to women and girls, and a shortage of avenues to make their voices heard often leads to disengagement with politics and a weak basis for effective policy and legislation. In Wales, we continue our commitment to increase the numbers of women in public life and to achieve gender balance in positions of power. We also, through our work to address the under-representation of women on public sector boards, and our diversity and democracy programme driving that, are challenging and changing the status quo.

We have pledged our commitment to the 50/50 by 2020 campaign, alongside employers and organisations in all sectors in Wales. We have a pledge as a Welsh Government to achieve a 50 per cent gender balance within the senior civil service by the year 2020, but we’re also making funding available to the Women Making a Difference balancing power project that’s educating and empowering women across Wales to have the skills, confidence and mindset to become leaders in their communities, and decision makers at all levels of public and political life. I do want to recognise at this point our female commissioners in Wales—Sophie Howe, the commissioner for future generations, Sarah Rochira for older people, Sally Holland for children, and Meri Huws for the Welsh language. These are significant public appointments. They do showcase the talent, the initiatives and the strides we’ve taken here in Wales to make sure that we have the best, that we encourage women to put themselves forward, and then they are appointed to those important positions. We are of course in Wales at the forefront of bringing gender equality into public and political life, with women playing key roles in many areas.

I think it’s very important to recognise that we have had a good story to tell in Wales. It’s common knowledge that we were the first devolved Assembly or Parliament to achieve a 50/50 gender balance. From 2000 to 2005 over half of our Cabinet Ministers, and from 2005 to 2007 over half of all our Assembly Members, were women. But we have to recognise that we’ve slipped back in terms of the number of female Assembly Members, now at 42 per cent. We’ve got to work together to find ways to encourage and support women to come forward as the Assembly Members of the future, and this debate enables us to make that point again.

Evidence does show clearly that gender-balanced boards, parliaments and leadership teams are better, not just for women, but for society as a whole. I think it is important just to recognise the ways in which this can be delivered. We have, for example Girls Make a Difference conferences, held over the last two years, which brought role models for a range of different careers, and year 12 and 13 girls together. Speakers were inspiring and encouraging young women to consider a wide range of non-traditional careers.

There is a danger that efforts to ensure equal representation and gender equality could be undermined in the post-Brexit era, and Joyce Watson has drawn attention to this, as did Rhun ap Iorwerth this afternoon. Women could become less visible. Their voices may not be heard in the debates that determine our lives and our futures. Suzy Davies makes an important point about modern foreign languages, and perhaps we can have a role to play in progressing those and ensuring that girls can be at the forefront. We want to ensure that, post Brexit, we don’t lose these opportunities, that women’s voices are heard, and that we keep and strengthen the networks that we have across Europe, and that we have to continue to face those barriers facing women and girls in terms of leadership opportunities. I think it is important that we look at the wider world, as you have, Joyce, today, looking, for example, at our continued commitment to the Wales for Africa programme. Since 2006, the Welsh Government has supported and encouraged thousands of people to get involved in mutually beneficial links between Wales and Africa, contributing to the campaign to make poverty history, and to deliver the UN millennium development goals. I met a Kenyan woman Minister, when I was health Minister in the Welsh Government, who had attended the same government school as myself in Eldoret in Kenya during my childhood in East Africa. We’d both become Ministers through very different circumstances. I was very proud and privileged to meet her.

Education continues to be the vital link in helping to achieve gender equality, and in the words of Dr James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey, a great Ghanaian educationalist—let’s remember this—if you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family, a nation. In recent years, we’ve seen progress in Africa—Joyce has mentioned these—in terms of women breaking into positions of power, and since 2015, the UN sustainable development goals have been the focus of our efforts, including goal 5, to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. We strengthened our commitment last year with the passing of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. We want to build a prosperous Wales, but we take into account the global impact of our decisions and our actions.

Finally, I want to highlight the work of the Safe Foundation here in Wales. On 24 October, 10 young people, including four young women from Wales—those are young people who are in education, employment or training—will be travelling to Uganda to work on a social enterprise project. They’ll be participating in the life of the local community and its economy. They’ll be building a clay oven and delivering workshops on how to make bread. For the young people from Wales, I’ve no doubt—and you talked about the Commonwealth Youth Parliament and that exchange—that this will be a life-changing experience. It will help develop their confidence and leadership skills, and recognise that they have so much to offer. At the same time, the project will provide real and sustainable benefits in Africa in terms of income, nutrition and skills. And, of course, it will be, for those young people, an opportunity, as you say, Joyce Watson, to look out and to recognise what they can share across the world.

So, I’m very proud to respond to the debate today. Again, I thank Joyce for all her work in promoting Wales on the international stage, but we must continue to work together to make Wales a country where women are equally represented at all levels, and where there is fairness and equality for all, which we want to share across the world.

Thank you very much. That brings today’s proceedings to a close. Thank you.

The meeting ended at 18:45.