Speeches by Dodds.

“I would say the most important thing for me is to make sure that mainstreaming is not just a word and that it is a reality. I mean that very seriously. With every proposal that I am looking at, I am determined to ensure that we really are taking this seriously. I want to know what has changed compared to not having tha…”

“There are discrete programmes focused specifically on women and girls, for example on women’s rights organisations, but also in relation to women’s health in particular and other areas. You mentioned Afghanistan, I think—”

“Okay, sorry.”

“You are right to describe the situation in Afghanistan for women and girls in the terms that you used. It is absolutely horrendous. I think the recent measures that were brought in around healthcare staff are extremely disturbing, clearly not just for those women who no longer will be able to train as nurses and doctor…”

“I want us to do it as quickly as possible. We are working at pace, but quite a lot of technical work needs to be gone through in order for us to ensure that, when ratification happens, it is actually going to deliver that impact.”

“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…”