Speeches by Dodds.

“I agree and we do support those moves in relation to CEDAW. When it comes to the inclusion of gender apartheid as a new crime against humanity, as I mentioned before, there are quite complex considerations around this. We are looking really carefully at them. There are quite different points of view, as I said, includi…”

“I am very concerned. It is very clear that no other organisation is able to deliver aid and services to people, not just in Gaza but right across the region, in the way that UNRWA does. No other organisation has the scope that it has and the depth of provision. There is also a UN mandate for UNRWA to be performing the …”

“I think that there clearly was considerable concern in Israel, especially after the issues that led to the Colonna review. I think there was deep concern about the allegations of involvement of UNRWA staff in the October attacks. The new UK Government have been in a lot of contact with UNRWA since those events, really …”

“Our view remains that it must not go into force, that there is a very clear mandate for UNRWA and that its work is absolutely necessary. We do not believe that a clear alternative has been set out, even if there were somehow a justification for that, and we do not believe that there is. An alternative has not been set …”

“I certainly had very long conversations with those individuals who I met in Israel. I made very clear the UK Government’s position on this.”

“It is, as I said, that the role of UNRWA must be continued and that we cannot see an implementation of that decision. I do not want to rerun the discussion that happened in the House earlier today, but I also made clear that there cannot be impediments on aid, and all the other issues that the UK Government have focuse…”

“I want it to happen as soon as possible.”

“Again, I do not want to rerun the discussion earlier in the House. As a new Government, we have been very clear that, for example, we believe the ICC and the ICJ have jurisdiction when it comes to events in Gaza. We have taken a radically different approach when it comes to arms export licensing and a radically differe…”

“It is very important that both humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law are held to, but also that that UN system, which is ultimately one for which there is a mandate from every country, is maintained. You are absolutely right that we are seeing that pressure. I would also mention, without wanting to…”

“We have laid out what the consequences will be, if there was to be that kind of fulfilment of that Knesset vote. We have been very clear about the likely impact. I have been clear about it bilaterally, as we were talking about before, with Israel, but with other partners as well. We have been working with a number of c…”

“I will try to be really quick. I was really pleased that they were appointed. We have now seen the first UK engagement in Port Sudan to have taken place since the conflict began. It is incredibly important that that happened. We have doubled our aid to Sudan and we continue to work with a range of other bodies, bilater…”

“We have worked with other nations to make sure that the UN’s fact-finding mission was renewed. I was really pleased that we saw additional African countries coming in to back that. It was very important that the mandate was renewed, so that there is that fact-finding. We are also supporting work that is ongoing through…”

“Thanks very much for that question. I believe that we are on track to deliver that. That is also related to the fact that, currently, so much development work is intimately connected with particularly climate adaptation, as well as mitigation. For example, if we were to look at the situation in Zambia, where I recently…”

“No, I would not read that implication from what I said. What I was trying to underline was that, when the Foreign Secretary said that climate and nature would be at the heart of everything we do, that was both because we will have explicit targets and explicit programmes around this, and because the drivers of extreme …”

“I suppose this relates again to that point about partnership that we were talking about before. We have not been in a position where we have had to say that we cannot pursue those priorities that I set out at the beginning because we have to hit that target. We have not been in that situation. Instead, I would say we h…”

“We can always do better. Certainly, I as a politician always believe I need to do more to make sure that I am communicating as clearly as I can. I am learning from others around this. When it comes to that particular example, it is very intuitive for people to understand. My kids, without going into too much detail, th…”

“We are not talking about a reclassification. We are not talking about a change to the rules. We are determined to make sure that we meet our commitments around this. Just to go back to the point again, I was trying to underline that the impact of the climate crisis now on people’s life circumstances is so intense that …”

“That can be a quick answer, because we are determined to ratify. We are moving forward at pace. Of course, quite a lot of technical work needs to be undertaken, but we are really determined to ratify as soon as possible. It is of great importance, both to me as the Development Minister and to the Foreign Secretary.”

“You can push me. You will not get one, but that is not because we are not working at pace and really hard on this. We have been liaising really intensively with our DEFRA colleagues on this. They want to move forward on this as quickly as possible. I know that it is a real priority, certainly for this Government, but i…”

“I know that Lord Collins, the Minister for Africa, has visited Rwanda. He has visited Angola and DRC as well. It is extremely concerning to see the situation that has developed within DRC, of course. I have been seeking to ensure that our development spending, wherever it is in the world, delivers on our objectives and…”