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.