ActionAid UK calls on the new Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, to maintain the department’s commitment to women and girls’ rights and give it real weight by reversing devastating funding cuts
Taahra Ghazi and Hannah Bond, co-CEOs of ActionAid UK, said: "Women and girls are bearing the brunt of crises around the world, including – as Ed Miliband well knows – the climate emergency, which continues to spiral. The incoming Foreign Secretary must maintain the department’s commitment to women and girls’ rights and give it real weight by reversing devastating funding cuts, ensuring resources reach women’s rights organisations directly and embedding gender equality throughout the UK’s foreign policy. He must also challenge the economic systems that violate women and girls' rights in the first place, by pushing for fairer global tax rules, meaningful action on debt and new legislation to hold UK corporations accountable, in order to bring about the fair and feminist transition we need.
“The new Prime Minister has admitted that the UK’s response to Israel’s assault on Gaza has fallen short, and he now has an opportunity to put that right. As the Israeli authorities intensify their systematic assault on Palestinian life and rights, the UK must urgently meet its obligations under international law by immediately halting all arms sales to Israel, banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements and suspending the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement until widespread and systematic violations come to an end.”
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Spokespeople are available. For more information contact the press office at uk.media@actionaid.org or on 07753 973 486
About ActionAid
https://www.actionaid.org.uk/
ActionAid is an international charity that works with women and girls living in poverty. Our dedicated local staff are changing the world with women and girls. We are ending violence and fighting poverty so that all women, everywhere, can create the future they want.