Revision as of 06:49, 20 September 2007 editGrandmaster (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers25,530 edits removing link to deleted image← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 03:45, 10 November 2024 edit undoRavenpuff (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Page movers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers66,176 edits Copying from Category:Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II to Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II using Cat-a-lot | ||
(785 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown) | |||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Short description|British politician and businesswoman}} | |||
'''Caroline Ann Cox, Baroness Cox''' (born ] ]) is a ] member of the ] ], and campaigner for many ] causes and issues relating to ]. | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}} | |||
{{Use British English|date=June 2013}} | |||
{{Infobox officeholder | |||
|honorific-prefix=] | |||
| name = The Baroness Cox | |||
| honorific-suffix = ] ] | |||
| image = Official portrait of Baroness Cox crop 2, 2019.jpg | |||
|office = ]<br />] | |||
|term_start = 2 March 1983<br />] | |||
|term_end = | |||
| party = ] <small>(2004–present)</small><br />] <small>(until 2004)</small> | |||
| birth_name = Caroline Anne McNeill Love | |||
| alma_mater = ]<br />] | |||
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1937|07|06|df=y}} | |||
| birth_place = ], United Kingdom | |||
| death_date = | |||
| death_place = | |||
| caption = Official portrait, 2018 | |||
}} | |||
'''Caroline Anne Cox, Baroness Cox''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|FRCS|FRCN}} (born '''Caroline Anne McNeill Love'''; born 6 July 1937) is a ] member of the ] ]. She is also the founder of an organisation called Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART).<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.hart-uk.org/about-us/who-we-are/ |title=Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust}}</ref> Cox was created a Life Peer in 1982 and was a deputy speaker of the ] from 1985 to 2005, as well as being a minister in government. She was also a ] to Queen Elizabeth II. She was Founder Chancellor of ], Chancellor of ] from 2006 to 2013, and is an Hon. Vice President of the ]. She was a founder Trustee of MERLIN ].<ref name="prnewswire.com">{{cite press release |url= https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/senior-member-of-the-british-parliament-the-baroness-cox-of-queensbury-to-discuss-her-recent-trip-to-syria-at-national-press-club-newsmaker-10-am-may-9-300442206.html |title=Anatomy of Innocence at the National Press Club May 1 |publisher= National Press Club |date=19 April 2017 |location= Washington DC}}</ref> | |||
She is a prominent lay Anglican, closely identified with the conservative wing of the ].<ref name="cold war"/> According to a biography by Andrew Boyd, she is a practising ].<ref>https://www.amazon.com/Baroness-Cox-Voiceless-Andrew-Boyd/dp/0745937357, p.74</ref> | |||
==Background== | ==Background== | ||
Cox was born on 6 July 1937 in London.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618160852/http://www.hope.ac.uk/about-hope/baroness-caroline-cox-the-foundation-chancellor.html |date=18 June 2010 }}, Liverpool Hope University, accessed 2 March 2018.</ref><ref name="ignore"/> She is the daughter of Robert McNeill Love, a surgeon and co-author of the textbook known as "Bailey and Love".<ref>, Bournemouth University</ref> She was educated at ] in ].{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} She became a state registered nurse at ] from 1958,<ref name="ignore"/> and a staff nurse at Edgware General Hospital from 1960.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} | |||
Cox was born Caroline Ann McNeill Love, the daughter of a surgeon from ]. She was educated at Channing School in ], ]. She became a state ] at ] from 1958, and a staff nurse at Edgware General Hospital from 1960. She married Dr Murray Newall Cox in 1959, remaining married to him until he died in 1997. The couple had three children, two sons and one daughter. In the late 1960s she studied for a degree at the ] where she graduated with a ] ] in ] in 1967; as a research assistant at the ], she obtained a ] in ]. | |||
She married Dr Murray Newall Cox in 1959, remaining married to him until he died in 1997. The couple had two sons and one daughter.<ref name="ignore"/> In the late 1960s she studied for a degree at the ] where she graduated with a ] honours degree in ] in 1967 and a master's degree.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} | |||
==Academic career== | |||
On leaving, Cox became a sociology ] at the ] rising to become Principal Lecturer. From 1974 she was head of the Department of Sociology. In 1977 she moved to become Director of the Nursing Education Research Unit at Chelsea College of the University of London. She was also made a Honorary Fellow of the ]. She was also concerned with education and backed the reforms to reduce powers of ] in 1993, arguing for a more strongly religious element to teaching. Her background in sociology led her to write books on the subject for nurses, and she also wrote a book attacking ] at the Polytechnic of North London in 1975. She was founding ] of ]. | |||
==Academic and thinktank career and subsequent activities== | |||
Cox currently serves as Vice President of the ]. | |||
On graduating, Cox became a sociology ] at the ] rising to become Principal Lecturer. From 1974 she was head of the Department of Sociology.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} An ''Evangelicals Now'' article sympathetically describes her approach to her discipline: "As a committed Christian she presented a Christian view of Sociology."<ref name="Champion">, ''Evangelicals Now'', July 2008.</ref> According to ''Evangelicals Now'': "It was a time of student unrest and the students organised demonstrations to disrupt lectures or meetings which they considered anti-Marxist. Cox bore the brunt of this and in 1974 the students passed a vote of no confidence in her."<ref name="Champion"/> Her background in sociology led her to write books on the subject for nurses.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} | |||
In 1975, Cox co-wrote (with ] and ]) ''The Rape of Reason: The Corruption of the Polytechnic of North London'',<ref name="Marks" /> published by Churchill Press, attacking "] activity" at her workplace.<ref name="dispute">] , ''Contemporary British History'', Volume 30, 2016 - Issue 2, Pages 242-259 | Published online: 21 December 2015 https://doi.org/10.1080/13619462.2015.1112275</ref> She resigned from the Polytechnic in 1977<ref name="Champion"/> and was a tutor at the ].<ref name="dispute"/> She was involved in the right-wing thinktank ] and contributed to its report, the ] report, on left-wing activism in British universities, in which she focused on "Marxist bias" in the Open University.<ref>Madeleine Arnot, Len Barton '''', Symposium Books Ltd, 1 January 1992</ref><ref>John D. Brewer '''', A&C Black, 23 May 2013</ref><ref name="dispute"/> | |||
She is a ] of the Educational Research Trust. In 2006 she received an honorary law degree from the ]<ref>{{cite web | title=Installation of new Chancellor, The Lord Patel | work=University of Dundee | url=http://www.dundee.ac.uk/pressreleases/prmay06/installation.html | accessdate=2006-06-02}}</ref> and was installed as the Chancellor of ] in the same year. | |||
In 1977 she moved to become Director of the Nursing Education Research Unit at ] of the University of London and remained in this post until 1984.<ref name="Champion"/> She was made a Fellow of the ] in 1985.<ref>{{Cite web |title=RCN Fellows and Honorary Fellows |url=https://www.rcn.org.uk/About-us/RCN-Fellows-and-Honorary-Fellows |access-date=7 Nov 2022 |website=Royal College of Nursing}}</ref> She was also made an Honorary Fellow of the ].{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} She was later founding ] of ].{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} In 2006 she received an honorary law degree from the ]<ref>{{cite web|title=Installation of new Chancellor, The Lord Patel|work=University of Dundee|url=http://www.dundee.ac.uk/pressreleases/2006/prmay06/installation.html|access-date=2 June 2006|archive-date=14 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614023018/http://www.dundee.ac.uk/pressreleases/2006/prmay06/installation.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and was installed as the Chancellor of ] in the same year.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} | |||
==Current Disability Activities== | |||
She has supported disability causes for many years, is an active member of the World Committee on Disability and a judge for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award, which is distributed annually at the United Nations in New York to a nation that has met the goals of the UN World Programme of Action Concerning disabled persons. | |||
===The New Right and Thatcherism=== | |||
==Current Humanitarian and Human Rights Activities== | |||
Following her work on the Gould Report, Cox became a key figure in the ] associated with ], ] and ].<ref>Jenny Bourne, ‘’, IRR News, Institute for Race Relations, 15 January 2015.</ref><ref name="Callaghan">Daniel Callaghan, ''Conservative Party Education Policies, 1976-1997: The Influence of Politics and Personality'', Sussex Academic Press, 2006</ref><ref name="towards">Clyde Chitty ''Towards a New Education System: The Victory of the New Right?'' Psychology Press, 1989</ref> She co-wrote ''The Pied Pipers of Education'' (1981) for the ] and worked with the ], for which she wrote the influential pamphlet ''The Right to Learn'' (1982).<ref name="Callaghan"/> Her work on education was very influential on Thatcher's education policies.<ref name="Callaghan"/> She co-founded and co-directed the ], founded in 1980, with John Marks; they were consulted about the drafting of the ], which introduced the ], ] and ].<ref name=Marks> Daily Telegraph 2 March 2012</ref> | |||
She is ] of HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust), a ] of the Medical Aid for Poland Fund , a Trustee of MERLIN (Medical Emergency Relief International), a member of the Physicians for Human Rights (UK) a ] of the Andrei Sakarov Foundation, an International Representative for Elam Ministries. She is also a member of the Standing Conference on Women's Organisations, a vice-president of the ]. | |||
She was involved in the ], an organization funded by ] in the early 1980s for which she co-authored ''Peace Studies: A Critical Survey'' in 1984 with ], which published by the conservative think tank ].<ref name="cold war">Tim Mills et al, '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170927175351/http://www.thecordobafoundation.com/attach/SpinwatchReport_ColdWar12.pdf |date=27 September 2017 }}'', September 2011</ref> She was a director of the ] from 1983 to 1985.<ref name="Hughes, Mike 1991">Hughes, Mike 'Western Goals (UK)' '']'' 21, (May 1991)</ref> With Scruton and others she wrote ''Education and Indoctrination''.<ref name="Callaghan"/> In the mid-1980s, she worked with Scruton as part of the Hillgate Group of Conservative activists; their pamphlet ''Whose Schools? A Radical Manifesto'', which she co-authored, was published in 1986, and contained many ideas that became Government policy under Thatcher.<ref name="towards"/><ref>, ''The Independent'' 1 August 1992</ref> In 1987 she co-founded the ], funded by ], which at one point{{when|date=May 2024}} called for "the legalisation of all drugs".<ref>Farrell, Michael 'News and Notes' ''British Journal of Addiction'' (1991) 86, p469</ref> She was the executive director of the ] in 1985–1990.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} | |||
==Publications== | |||
Author of the following publications: Islam, Islamism and the West: Is Idiological Islam Compatible with Liberal Democracy? (2005); A Sociology of Medical Practice (1975); Rape of Reason: The Corruption of the Polytechnic of North London (jt au 1975); The Right to Learn (jt au 1982); Sociology: A Guide for Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors (jt au 1983); Choosing a State School: how to find the best education for your child (jt au 1989); Trajectories of Despair; misdiagnosis and maltreatment of Soviet orphans (with John Eibner 1991); Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: war in Nagorno Karabakh (1993); and Made to Care: the case for residential and village communities for people with a mental handicap. | |||
Since its founding in 2007, she has been closely involved, first as an advisor and from 2009 as director, in the ].<ref name="CompHouse">{{cite web|url=http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/75e305b0efbac0172978126469c8b941/wcprodorder?ft=1|title=Failure Page|website=wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk}}</ref><ref name="cold war" /> She is a ] of the ].<ref name="Aked">Hilary Aked , Institute for Race Relations, 28 January 2015</ref> | |||
==House of Lords== | |||
Her peerage was announced on ], ] on a list of "working peers", on the recommendation of ] ], and she took the title '''Baroness Cox''', of Queensbury in Greater London. Cox initially sat as a ] and served briefly as a Baroness-in-Waiting (a ], the lowest rung of government) in 1985, but disliked the job and instead became a Deputy Speaker of the ] from 1986. | |||
==Member of House of Lords== | |||
During the debates over the Education Reform Bill, Cox worked together with ] to ensure that a commitment was made that state education was 'broadly Christian' in character <ref>John Barnes, "" (obituary), ''The Independent'', May 31, 2004, p. 31</ref>. She became a frequent contributor to Lords debates on Africa, and also raised other "forgotten conflicts" in letters to the press. She was already highlighting fighting in ] in September 1992 <ref>Letter to ''The Times'', September 8, 1992</ref>, and also highlighted the actions of the ] government in ]<ref>Letter to ''The Independent'', January 26, 1994</ref>. | |||
Her peerage was announced on 15 December 1982 on a list of "working peers",<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=49198 |supp=y|page=16407|date=14 December 1982}}</ref> on the recommendation of ] ], and she was granted the title of '''Baroness Cox''', of ] in ], on 24 January 1983.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=49248|page=1235|date=27 January 1983}}</ref> Cox initially sat as a ] and served briefly as a ] to ].{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} She served as a Deputy Speaker of the ] from 1986 to 2006.<ref name="ignore"/> | |||
===Section 28=== | |||
==Other political activities== | |||
She supported ], which outlawed the "promotion" of homosexuality.<ref>{{cite journal| pmid=27237873 | doi=10.7748/ns.4.18.5.s5 | volume=4 | issue=18 | title=College denies boycott threat | year=1990 | journal=Nurs Stand | page=5}}</ref><ref name="Eyes to the Right"/> | |||
Cox is a Eurosceptic. She rebelled over the ], supporting an amendment to require a nationwide referendum on ratification on ], ]<ref>House of Lords Hansard</ref>. In May 2004 she joined three other Conservative peers in signing a letter published by the ] urging voters to support it in the elections to the European Parliament. The Leader of the Conservative Party, ], immediately withdrew the Conservative whip from the four <ref>Gaby Hinsliff, "", ''The Observer'', May 30, 2004, p. 2</ref>. Cox now sits in the Lords as a ]. | |||
===Education Reform bill=== | |||
In June 2002 Cox hosted a launch event for "Great Britain has Fallen!", a book written by ]n missionary Wale Babatunde <ref>"Londoner's Diary", '']'', September 11, 2002, p. 12</ref>, and also wrote endorsements saying the book "showed the way forward" for reversing Britain's moral decline <ref>Kamal Ahmed, "", ''The Observer'', September 15, 2002, p. 10</ref>. Her actions received some criticism as the book argues against multiculturalism, describes homosexuality as "destructive", directly compares abortion to the Holocaust, and says that the death of ] "was God's punishment for sexual scandal". Labour MP ] called on the Conservative Party leader ] to discipline Cox for her actions supporting the book<ref>Chris McLaughlin, "TORIES' COX-UP: Baroness praises book on Diana's 'punishment'", ''Sunday Mirror'', September 15, 2002, p. 23</ref>. | |||
During the debates over the Education Reform bill, Cox worked together with ] to ensure that a commitment was made that state education was 'broadly Christian' in character.<ref>John Barnes, ''The Independent'' obituary, 31 May 2004, p. 31</ref> The bill later passed as the ]. She backed the reforms to reduce powers of ] in 1993.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} | |||
===Foreign affairs=== | |||
Baroness Cox is the honorary vice-chairman of the International Islamic Christian Organisation for Reconciliation and Reconstruction. She is one of 18 co-founders of the ] organisation, <ref name="One Jerusalem"> - One Jerusalem</ref> which aims at "maintaining a united Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel" <ref name="mission statement"> from the One Jerusalem website</ref>, and became a Co-President of the Jerusalem Summit on ], ]. <ref name="Presidium"> - The Jerusalem Summit.</ref> She sat on the presiding council of the Institute for the Study of Terrorism in the 1980s (see ]) | |||
Cox became a frequent contributor to Lords debates on Africa, and also raised other "forgotten conflicts" in letters to the press. She was already highlighting fighting in ] in September 1992, criticising Sudan's Islamist government and backing Dr. ]'s ].<ref>Letter to ''The Times'', 8 September 1992</ref> | |||
After spending two years investigating the situation in ], Cox criticised the government's treatment of Armenians in the breakaway region of ] in 1993.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno-Karabakh|author1=Elena Bonner Sakharov|author2-link=John Eibner|author3=Caroline Cox|author2=John Eibner|website=sumgait.info|date=1993|publisher=Christian Solidarity International|chapter-url=http://sumgait.info/caroline-cox/ethnic-cleansing-in-progress/preface.htm|chapter=Preface|author1-link=Yelena Bonner}}</ref> She has stated that her stance is the "advocacy for Karabakh Armenians".<ref></ref> In 2015, she was a member of the Armenian ].<ref>https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/armenia.htm Parliament website, group membership</ref> She is a strong supporter of self-determination for the Armenians of ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aaainc.org/fileadmin/aaainc/pdf/2005/10-04-05__2005-101_Armenian_Assembly_Co-Hosts_Special_Capitol_Hill_Event_Celebrating_Karabakh_s_Independence.pdf|title=Armenian Assembly of America. Armenian Assembly Co-Hosts Special Capitol Hill Event Celebrating Karabakh's Independence|access-date=21 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526165348/http://www.aaainc.org/fileadmin/aaainc/pdf/2005/10-04-05__2005-101_Armenian_Assembly_Co-Hosts_Special_Capitol_Hill_Event_Celebrating_Karabakh_s_Independence.pdf|archive-date=26 May 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> By 2003 she had made more than 60 trips to the region. ], the co-chairman of the US Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, praised her devotion to Armenia and Karabakh.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.armeniafundusa.org/news/20031114-gala-success.htm|title=Armenia Fund USA Tribute Gala at St. Regis Hotel a Spectacular Success|access-date=20 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090630135814/http://armeniafundusa.org/news/20031114-gala-success.htm|archive-date=30 June 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 15 February 2006 she was awarded the ] by the President of Armenia ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/pr_06/060220_reception_cox.html|title=Tarifplus24.de vergleicht Strom, Gas, Handy, DSL und Kfz-Tarife|website=www.armeniaforeignministry.com|access-date=21 September 2007|archive-date=14 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614223045/http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/pr_06/060220_reception_cox.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
Baroness Cox is a strong supporter of the Armenian separatist movement in ]. ], Jr., co-chairman of the US Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, called Cox a "true Armenian nationalist who would give her life for Armenia and Karabakh."<ref></ref> | |||
Cox is one of eleven officers of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/north-korea.htm|title=House of Commons - Register Of All-Party Groups as at 30 July 2015 : North Korea|first=The Committee Office, House of|last=Commons|website=publications.parliament.uk}}</ref> The Group stated that the Obama administration brought with it an opportunity for a formal cessation of hostilities and normalisation of relations with ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/8583|title=Ekklesia - Parliamentarians see golden opportunity to tear down 'Asia's Berlin Wall'|date=15 December 2015|website=www.ekklesia.co.uk|access-date=16 June 2011|archive-date=23 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523055429/http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/8583|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
==Anti-Slavery campaigning== | |||
The issue of contemporary ] has been at the forefront of Cox' activities, especially in ]. In 1997 she joined ], a group which had been formed in 1979 as the UK branch of ]. <ref name="About CSW"> (Christian Solidarity Worldwide website)</ref> Between 1997 and 2000, Christian Solidary Worldwide directly intervened to buy the freedom of slaves, and in a letter to ''The Independent on Sunday'' Cox claimed to have redeemed 2,281 slaves on eight visits to Sudan. <ref name="Independent">"This is no scam. The slaves are real", ''Independent on Sunday'', March 3, 2002, p. 27</ref> In 1995 she won the William Wilberforce Award, named in honour of the former MP who led the fight to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire, for her humanitarian work generally. <ref name="Wilberforce Award">Christine Barker, "The unsung hero's song", ''Birmingham Post'', June 27, 1998, p. 37</ref> | |||
===Great Britain has Fallen=== | |||
In 2002, she controversially endorsed and hosted the launch of the book ''Great Britain has Fallen'' by Wale Babatunde, a minister at the World Harvest Christian Centre in London, which said "that multi-culturalism is ruining Britain by importing 'foreign practices', homosexuality is 'destructive' and that abortion can be directly equated with the Holocaust" and described lesbianism as "against nature".<ref name="blast at gays">{{cite news |first=Kamal |last=Ahmed |url= https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/sep/15/uk.conservatives |title=Top Tory backs blast at gays and lesbians |newspaper=The Observer |date=15 September 2002 |location= London}}</ref> In response, Labour's ] called for her expulsion from the Conservative Party.<ref name="blast at gays"/> | |||
===Criticism of Islam=== | |||
In 2003, she wrote ''The 'West', Islam and Islamism: Is ideological Islam compatible with liberal democracy?'' with John Marks,<ref name="Marks" /> published by Civitas, which argued "that Islamist terrorism was only part of a broader ideological challenge comparable to communist propaganda efforts during the ]".<ref name="cold war" /><ref></ref> | |||
Cox introduced the Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill to the House of Lords, initially on 10 May 2012.<ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150313102429/http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2012-13/arbitrationandmediationservicesequality.html |date=13 March 2015 }}</ref> with the observation that "Equality under the law is a core value of British justice. My bill seeks to preserve that standard. Many women say: 'We came to this country to escape these practices only to find the situation is worse here.'"<ref name=gd11/> It had its second reading and debate on 19 October 2012, but went no further.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2012-2013/0007/13007.pdf|title=HL Bill 7 55/2: Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill [HL]}}</ref> Cox aims to prevent discrimination against Muslim women and 'jurisdiction creep' in ], which would be forced to acknowledge the primacy of English law under her Bill, which would have introduced an offence carrying a five-year jail sentence for anyone falsely claiming or implying that ] or councils have legal jurisdiction over family or criminal law. The bill, which would apply to all arbitration tribunals if passed, aimed to tackle discrimination, which its supporters said is inherent in the courts, by banning the sharia practice of giving woman's testimony only half the weight of men's. In a similar way to Jewish ] courts, sharia tribunals can make verdicts in cases involving financial and property issues which, under the ], are enforceable by the ] or the ].<ref name=gd11>. ''The Guardian''. London. 8 June 2011.</ref> Baroness Cox stated that "We cannot sit here complacently in our red and green benches while women are suffering a system which is utterly incompatible with the legal principles upon which this country is founded. If we don't do something, we are condoning it."<ref name=ico>. ''The Independent''. London. 20 June 2011.</ref><ref>Murray, Douglas (22 October 2012). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408040535/http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/douglas-murray/2012/10/the-government-kicks-the-sharia-debate-into-the-long-grass/ |date=8 April 2015 }}. ''The Spectator''. London.</ref> The Bill was described by critics as "inflammatory".<ref>Nesrine Malik (20 June 2011). . ''The Guardian''. London.</ref> It did not reach a vote as it ran out of time. | |||
Cox continues fighting to stop sharia 'seeping' into enforcing divorce settlements.<ref name=dtcox>. ''The Daily Telegraph.'' London. 22 April 2014</ref> Cox re-introduced her legislation on 11 June 2014.<ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402163436/http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2014-15/arbitrationandmediationservicesequality.html |date=2 April 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2014-2015/0021/15021.pdf |title=HL Bill 21 55/4: Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill [HL]}}</ref> One leading Muslim Conservative Party activist said "the Bill will not help to achieve any of its intended goal but will alienate many Muslims".<ref>Mohammed Amin, Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, , ConservativeHome, 29 February 2016</ref> | |||
Cox, speaking at a 2014 event organised by the Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security at ] and The ], mentioned the alleged ‘]’ in her speech as an example of secret takeover strategies by ‘Islamists’ in Africa made in order to ‘Islamize’ the continent. She said "“Islam is using the freedoms of democracy to destroy it.”<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.jpost.com/International/British-House-of-Lords-baroness-warns-Israeli-audience-about-threat-of-Islamists-350723 |title=British House of Lords baroness warns Israeli audience about threat of Islamists |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |date=29 April 2014 |author= Ariel Ben Solomon}}</ref> | |||
In 2014, she hosted the parliamentary launch of Sharia Watch UK, an anti-Islam organisation led by UKIP candidate ]. Cox said sharia law "undermines the most fundamental principles of equality enshrined in British law" in respect of its treatment of women.<ref>, ''Christian Concern'', 25 April 2014</ref> | |||
In February 2023 it was reported in '']'' that Cox and ] were members of a secret group called the New Issues Group, which had been operating out of the House of Lords for over a decade and had worked with far-right anti-Muslim activists.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/25/house-of-lords-worked-with-far-right|title=Secret House of Lords circle 'shown to have worked with far right'|first=Mark|last=Townsend|work=The Guardian|date=25 February 2023}}</ref> | |||
Cox has been described as part of the ] movement.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/192414854/Aked_Jones_Miller_Counterjihad_report_2019.pdf|last1=Aked|first1=H.|last2=Jones|first2=M.|last3=Miller|first3=D.|year=2019|title=Islamophobia in Europe: How governments are enabling the far-right 'counter-jihad' movement|journal=Public Interest Investigations|publisher=University of Bristol|page=24}}</ref> | |||
===Eurosceptic and migration critic=== | |||
Cox is a ]. She rebelled over the ], supporting an amendment to require a nationwide referendum on ratification on 14 July 1993.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} In May 2004 she joined three other Conservative peers in signing a letter published by the ] urging voters to support it in the elections to the European Parliament. The Leader of the Conservative Party, ], immediately withdrew the ], formally expelling them from the parliamentary party. Cox now sits in the House of Lords as a ].<ref>Gaby Hinsliff, "", ''The Observer'', 30 May 2004, p. 2</ref><ref name=ico/><ref name="numbers game"/> | |||
She sits on the Advisory Council of ].<ref>, MigrationWatch</ref><ref name="numbers game">] , ''The Guardian'', 21 March 2007</ref><ref name="Master">] , ''The Observer'' Sun 7 January 2007</ref><ref name="Eyes to the Right">Oscar Reyes , The Transnational Institute, 1 February 2007</ref> | |||
===Geert Wilders=== | |||
In February 2009, Cox and ] peer ] invited ] leader ] to show the anti-Islam film '']'' before the ]. However, Wilders was prevented from entering the UK on the instructions of Labour Home Secretary ].<ref name="guardian.co.uk">], , 12 February 2009</ref> In response, Cox and Pearson accused the Government of appeasing militant Islam.<ref name=ico/><ref>], , 12 February 2009</ref> | |||
In 2010, Cox and Pearson successfully hosted Wilders and his film screening in the UK,<ref name="Aked"/> with 200 members of the ] marching in support of the screening, as well as anti-fascist protests and 50 arrests.<ref name="BBC Wilders">, BBC, 5 March 2010</ref> Lady Cox said the visit had been a victory for free speech, saying: ''"You don't have to agree but it is important to debate sensibly in a responsible and very democratic way."'' At the event, Wilders called for an end to immigration to Europe from Muslim countries, but that Muslims already in Europe who agree to obey the law would be welcome to remain. A Home Office spokesperson said the government "regrets the decision by Baroness Cox and Lord Pearson".<ref name="BBC Wilders"/> | |||
==NGO work and Christian activities== | |||
Since 2009, Baroness Cox has participated in a conservative umbrella body within the ], the ], led by her close associate, then Bishop of Rochester ].<ref name="cold war"/> | |||
===The Tushinskaya Children's Hospital Trust=== | |||
Baroness Cox is president of the Tushinskaya Children's Hospital Trust and worked closely with its late patron, ]. Baroness Cox and the Princess of Wales opened the hospital's school of paediatric nursing in 1995. The Trust enabled parents to spend more time with their children whilst they were in hospital.<ref>page 92-93, "Baroness Cox: A Voice for the Voiceless" by Andrew Boyd,https://www.amazon.com/Baroness-Cox-Voiceless-Andrew-Boyd/dp/0745937357</ref><ref name="prnewswire.com"/> | |||
===Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust=== | |||
The Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), founded by Baroness Cox in 2003,<ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726142101/http://www.hart-uk.org/about.htm |date=26 July 2011 }}</ref> works to provide lasting change through aid and advocacy for those suffering oppression and persecution, who are largely neglected by the international media {{Citation needed|date=April 2020}}. An Australian branch of HART was established in 2009.<ref>{{cite web|title=ABC Brisbane|url=http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2012/09/baroness-caroline-cox-.html|access-date=24 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051427/http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2012/09/baroness-caroline-cox-.html|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
===Christian Solidarity International and Worldwide=== | |||
Cox was active in ] (CSI) before leading the breakaway ] in 1997.<ref>{{cite web|title=Persecution of Christians & Persecuted Churches|url=http://www.persecution.org/about-us/who-we-are/|access-date=13 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006025352/http://www.persecution.org/about-us/who-we-are/|archive-date=6 October 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> She was president of the latter<ref name="Eyes to the Right"/> until 2006, when she was replaced by ], thereafter remaining as its patron.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=response_article&id=126|title=Christiain Solidarity Website 2006}}</ref> | |||
During the ], CSI broke ]’s blockade of the contested ] territory numerous times to deliver humanitarian aid and document acts of violence against the Christian Armenian inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh. CSI also partnered with the ] foundation to send aid to refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh. Witnessing the war on the ground, CSI published a detailed account of the ] titled ''Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh'' co-authored by Cox with ].<ref>{{cite web|last=Dr. John Eibner|first=Caroline Cox|title=Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh|url=http://sumgait.info/caroline-cox/ethnic-cleansing-in-progress/post-soviet-conflict.htm#humanitarian|publisher=Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World|access-date=13 October 2011}}</ref> Cox visited the ] in 2023 and called the ] a modern day tragedy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A modern day tragedy: Baroness Cox visits the entrance to Lachin corridor |url=https://en.armradio.am/2023/09/14/a-modern-day-tragedy-baroness-cox-visits-the-entrance-to-lachin-corridor/ |access-date=2023-09-19 |website=Public Radio of Armenia |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
CSI’s involvement with ] began in 1992, when two of CSI’s leaders, Cox and Eibner, traveled to southern Sudan at the invitation of local churches to observe the effects of civil war on the Christian populations there.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hertzke|first=Allen|title=Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights|year=2006|publisher=Rowman and Littlefield|pages=112}}</ref> CSI became especially involved in "redeeming" (buying and freeing) slaves in 1995.<ref name="My Career">{{cite journal|last=Eibner|first=Dr. John|title=My Career Redeeming Slaves|journal=Middle East Quarterly|url=http://www.meforum.org/449/my-career-redeeming-slaves|access-date=13 October 2011|date=December 1999}}</ref> | |||
Between 1997 and 2000, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) directly intervened to buy the freedom of alleged slaves, and in a letter to ''The Independent on Sunday'' Cox claimed and redeemed 2,281 slaves on eight visits to Sudan.<ref name="Independent">"This is no scam. The slaves are real", ''Independent on Sunday'', 3 March 2002, p. 27</ref> Both the veracity of this claim<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mediamonitors.net/espac5.html |title=Media Monitors Network: The BBC, Sudan and Baroness Cox: Irresponsible Journalism |access-date=27 August 2015 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305071844/http://www.mediamonitors.net/espac5.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the rationale of ]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/africa/sudanupdate.htm|title=Slavery and Slave Redemption in the Sudan (Human Rights Watch Backgroudner, March, 2002)|website=www.hrw.org}}</ref> have been questioned by others in humanitarian community. Cox repeated the figure in 2011, adding that she had spent £100,000 buying and freeing slaves, tactic most anti-slavery charities condemned, arguing that such purchases only perpetuate and encourage the trade.<ref name="ignore">, 19 June 2011</ref> | |||
In 1995 she won the ].<ref name="Wilberforce Award">Christine Barker, "The unsung hero's song", ''Birmingham Post'', 27 June 1998, p. 37</ref> She is also a patron of the ].{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} | |||
===Global Panel Foundation and Prague Society=== | |||
Cox is a member of the Board of Advisors of the , an NGO that works behind the scenes in crisis areas around the world.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920100036/http://www.globalpanel.org/boards|date=20 September 2012}}{{better source needed|need secondary source|date=February 2018}}</ref> Baroness Cox is also a member of ], another NGO whose main goals are networking and the development of a new generation of responsible, well-informed leaders and thinkers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://praguesociety.org/members|title=Members of Prague Society|access-date=19 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919153639/http://praguesociety.org/members|archive-date=19 September 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
===Disability activism=== | |||
Cox supports disability causes as a member of the ]. In 2004 she was a judge for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award, distributed annually at the United Nations in New York to a nation that has met the goals of the UN World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons.<ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110621080206/http://nod.org/about_us/our_history/annual_reports/2004_annual_report/ |date=21 June 2011 }}</ref> | |||
===Syria controversy=== | |||
Cox has been a supporter of ]'s President ]. She visited him during the ], during the ], along with ], fellow crossbench peer ], and Andrew Ashdown, an Anglican vicar. She was widely condemned. Labour MP ], vice-president of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Syria, said: "It is shocking to see a British parliamentarian giving international pariah al-Assad a photo opportunity to distract from the brutal and ongoing slaughter he is perpetrating on Syrian families. Whatever good intentions this British delegation has will fail; their presence at this man's side can only strengthen him as his campaign of terror continues." Liberal Democrat peer ] said it was "shameful" for members of the House of Lords to "sit down for a chat with a mass murderer and a war criminal".<ref>, ''Daily Telegraph'', 5 September 2016</ref> Russian state media claimed Cox said that Assad had an “openness for the development of civil society, democracy and change”.<ref name="Damascus">, Middle East Eye, 28 November 2017</ref> After her visit, in early 2017, she went to the US to lobby for president Assad's government.<ref name="rekindle">, Huffington Post, May 2017</ref> While there, she expressed doubt that Syrian government forces were responsible for ].<ref name="rekindle"/> | |||
In late 2017, she returned to Syria again, along with former ], ]. She reportedly met with an Assad advisor named on American and European Union sanctions lists as complicit in Syrian government war crimes. Again, the visit was widely condemned by politicians and human rights groups in the UK,<ref name="Damascus"/> and described by analysts as a “propaganda coup” for the Assad government.<ref>, EAWorldview, 29 November 2017</ref> In a subsequent parliamentary debate, she referred to Syrian rebels as "jihadists".<ref>, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, 21 December 2017</ref> | |||
==Media appearances== | |||
Baroness Cox regularly appears on the BBC '']'' television programme and has presented the "Soap Box" with "A Moral Maze".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piqbCt3YLRo |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/piqbCt3YLRo |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|title=Baroness Cox discusses Sharia law on BBC Daily Politics|last=Equal and Free|date=11 April 2016|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUVjceTT5ik |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/bUVjceTT5ik |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|title=Baroness Cox discusses Sharia law on BBC Daily Politics|last=Equal and Free|date=30 October 2015|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>{{Original research inline|date=March 2018}} As of 2017, she also appeared on ] and other channels associated with the Russian government as she felt they were more frank about Islam's threat to Western traditions.<ref name="rekindle"/> | |||
==Honours== | |||
Cox has been honoured with the ].<ref name="Wilberforce Award"/> | |||
{{Infobox COA wide | |||
|image = Cox Achievement.png | |||
|escutcheon = Azure a sword in fess the blade couped at the point Argent the hilt pommel and quillons to the sinister Or between two ancient lamps also Or enflamed Proper. | |||
|supporters = Dexter a horse Argent crined and hoofed Or, sinister a unicorn Argent its horn Or crined and unguled Gold. | |||
|motto = Think And Thank <ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage |date=2000}}</ref>}} | |||
==Bibliography== | |||
* ''A Sociology of Medical Practice'' (1975) | |||
* ''Rape of Reason: The Corruption of the Polytechnic of North London ''(Keith Jacka, with Caroline Cox and John Marks, jt au 1975) | |||
* ''The Right to Learn ''(jt au 1982) | |||
* ''Sociology: A Guide for Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors'' (jt au 1983) | |||
* ''Choosing a State School: how to find the best education for your child'' (jt au 1989) | |||
* ''Trajectories of Despair; misdiagnosis and maltreatment of Soviet orphans'' (with John Eibner 1991) | |||
* ''Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: war in Nagorno Karabakh'' (1993) | |||
* ''Islam, Islamism and the West: Is ideological Islam compatible with liberal democracy?'' (2005) | |||
* ''Made to Care: the case for residential and village communities for people with a mental handicap'' | |||
* ''Baroness Cox: A voice for the voiceless.'' (1999) Boyd, A. Lion Books. {{ISBN|0-7459-3735-7}} | |||
==Published Biographies== | |||
Lady Cox has been the subject of two published biographies, ''Baroness Cox: A Voice for the Voiceless'' by Andrew Boyd; and ''Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World'' by Lela Gilbert. | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
{{Reflist}} | {{Reflist|30em}} | ||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
* | |||
* | |||
* |
* | ||
* | |||
==Further reading== | |||
* , ''Telegraph'' | |||
* | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Caroline, Baroness Cox}} | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] |
Latest revision as of 03:45, 10 November 2024
British politician and businesswoman
The Right HonourableThe Baroness CoxFRCS FRCN | |
---|---|
Official portrait, 2018 | |
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office 2 March 1983 Life Peerage | |
Personal details | |
Born | Caroline Anne McNeill Love (1937-07-06) 6 July 1937 (age 87) London, United Kingdom |
Political party | Cross-bench (2004–present) Conservative (until 2004) |
Alma mater | University of London University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
Caroline Anne Cox, Baroness Cox, FRCS, FRCN (born Caroline Anne McNeill Love; born 6 July 1937) is a cross-bench member of the British House of Lords. She is also the founder of an organisation called Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART). Cox was created a Life Peer in 1982 and was a deputy speaker of the House of Lords from 1985 to 2005, as well as being a minister in government. She was also a Baroness-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth II. She was Founder Chancellor of Bournemouth University, Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University from 2006 to 2013, and is an Hon. Vice President of the Royal College of Nursing. She was a founder Trustee of MERLIN Medical Emergency Relief International.
She is a prominent lay Anglican, closely identified with the conservative wing of the Church of England. According to a biography by Andrew Boyd, she is a practising third-order Anglican Franciscan.
Background
Cox was born on 6 July 1937 in London. She is the daughter of Robert McNeill Love, a surgeon and co-author of the textbook known as "Bailey and Love". She was educated at Channing School in Highgate. She became a state registered nurse at London Hospital from 1958, and a staff nurse at Edgware General Hospital from 1960.
She married Dr Murray Newall Cox in 1959, remaining married to him until he died in 1997. The couple had two sons and one daughter. In the late 1960s she studied for a degree at the University of London where she graduated with a first class honours degree in Sociology in 1967 and a master's degree.
Academic and thinktank career and subsequent activities
On graduating, Cox became a sociology lecturer at the Polytechnic of North London rising to become Principal Lecturer. From 1974 she was head of the Department of Sociology. An Evangelicals Now article sympathetically describes her approach to her discipline: "As a committed Christian she presented a Christian view of Sociology." According to Evangelicals Now: "It was a time of student unrest and the students organised demonstrations to disrupt lectures or meetings which they considered anti-Marxist. Cox bore the brunt of this and in 1974 the students passed a vote of no confidence in her." Her background in sociology led her to write books on the subject for nurses.
In 1975, Cox co-wrote (with John Marks and Keith Jacka) The Rape of Reason: The Corruption of the Polytechnic of North London, published by Churchill Press, attacking "Communist activity" at her workplace. She resigned from the Polytechnic in 1977 and was a tutor at the Open University. She was involved in the right-wing thinktank Institute for the Study of Conflict and contributed to its report, the Gould report, on left-wing activism in British universities, in which she focused on "Marxist bias" in the Open University.
In 1977 she moved to become Director of the Nursing Education Research Unit at Chelsea College of the University of London and remained in this post until 1984. She was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing in 1985. She was also made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. She was later founding Chancellor of Bournemouth University. In 2006 she received an honorary law degree from the University of Dundee and was installed as the Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University in the same year.
The New Right and Thatcherism
Following her work on the Gould Report, Cox became a key figure in the New Right associated with Margaret Thatcher, Keith Joseph and Enoch Powell. She co-wrote The Pied Pipers of Education (1981) for the Social Affairs Unit and worked with the Centre for Policy Studies, for which she wrote the influential pamphlet The Right to Learn (1982). Her work on education was very influential on Thatcher's education policies. She co-founded and co-directed the Educational Research Trust, founded in 1980, with John Marks; they were consulted about the drafting of the 1988 Education Reform Act, which introduced the National Curriculum, grant-maintained schools and City Technology Colleges.
She was involved in the Institute for European Defence and Security Studies, an organization funded by The Heritage Foundation in the early 1980s for which she co-authored Peace Studies: A Critical Survey in 1984 with Roger Scruton, which published by the conservative think tank Civitas. She was a director of the Conservative Philosophy Group from 1983 to 1985. With Scruton and others she wrote Education and Indoctrination. In the mid-1980s, she worked with Scruton as part of the Hillgate Group of Conservative activists; their pamphlet Whose Schools? A Radical Manifesto, which she co-authored, was published in 1986, and contained many ideas that became Government policy under Thatcher. In 1987 she co-founded the Committee for a Free Britain, funded by Rupert Murdoch, which at one point called for "the legalisation of all drugs". She was the executive director of the Institute for the Study of Terrorism in 1985–1990.
Since its founding in 2007, she has been closely involved, first as an advisor and from 2009 as director, in the Centre for Social Cohesion. She is a director of the Gatestone Institute.
Member of House of Lords
Her peerage was announced on 15 December 1982 on a list of "working peers", on the recommendation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and she was granted the title of Baroness Cox, of Queensbury in Greater London, on 24 January 1983. Cox initially sat as a Conservative and served briefly as a Baroness-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth II. She served as a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords from 1986 to 2006.
Section 28
She supported Section 28, which outlawed the "promotion" of homosexuality.
Education Reform bill
During the debates over the Education Reform bill, Cox worked together with Michael Alison to ensure that a commitment was made that state education was 'broadly Christian' in character. The bill later passed as the Education Reform Act 1988. She backed the reforms to reduce powers of Local Education Authorities in 1993.
Foreign affairs
Cox became a frequent contributor to Lords debates on Africa, and also raised other "forgotten conflicts" in letters to the press. She was already highlighting fighting in Sudan in September 1992, criticising Sudan's Islamist government and backing Dr. John Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Army.
After spending two years investigating the situation in Azerbaijan, Cox criticised the government's treatment of Armenians in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1993. She has stated that her stance is the "advocacy for Karabakh Armenians". In 2015, she was a member of the Armenian All-Party Parliamentary Group. She is a strong supporter of self-determination for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. By 2003 she had made more than 60 trips to the region. Frank Pallone, Jr., the co-chairman of the US Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, praised her devotion to Armenia and Karabakh. On 15 February 2006 she was awarded the Mkhitar Gosh Medal by the President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan.
Cox is one of eleven officers of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea. The Group stated that the Obama administration brought with it an opportunity for a formal cessation of hostilities and normalisation of relations with North Korea.
Great Britain has Fallen
In 2002, she controversially endorsed and hosted the launch of the book Great Britain has Fallen by Wale Babatunde, a minister at the World Harvest Christian Centre in London, which said "that multi-culturalism is ruining Britain by importing 'foreign practices', homosexuality is 'destructive' and that abortion can be directly equated with the Holocaust" and described lesbianism as "against nature". In response, Labour's Tom Watson called for her expulsion from the Conservative Party.
Criticism of Islam
In 2003, she wrote The 'West', Islam and Islamism: Is ideological Islam compatible with liberal democracy? with John Marks, published by Civitas, which argued "that Islamist terrorism was only part of a broader ideological challenge comparable to communist propaganda efforts during the Cold War".
Cox introduced the Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill to the House of Lords, initially on 10 May 2012. with the observation that "Equality under the law is a core value of British justice. My bill seeks to preserve that standard. Many women say: 'We came to this country to escape these practices only to find the situation is worse here.'" It had its second reading and debate on 19 October 2012, but went no further. Cox aims to prevent discrimination against Muslim women and 'jurisdiction creep' in Islamic tribunals, which would be forced to acknowledge the primacy of English law under her Bill, which would have introduced an offence carrying a five-year jail sentence for anyone falsely claiming or implying that sharia courts or councils have legal jurisdiction over family or criminal law. The bill, which would apply to all arbitration tribunals if passed, aimed to tackle discrimination, which its supporters said is inherent in the courts, by banning the sharia practice of giving woman's testimony only half the weight of men's. In a similar way to Jewish Beth Din courts, sharia tribunals can make verdicts in cases involving financial and property issues which, under the Arbitration Act 1996, are enforceable by the County Court or the High Court. Baroness Cox stated that "We cannot sit here complacently in our red and green benches while women are suffering a system which is utterly incompatible with the legal principles upon which this country is founded. If we don't do something, we are condoning it." The Bill was described by critics as "inflammatory". It did not reach a vote as it ran out of time.
Cox continues fighting to stop sharia 'seeping' into enforcing divorce settlements. Cox re-introduced her legislation on 11 June 2014. One leading Muslim Conservative Party activist said "the Bill will not help to achieve any of its intended goal but will alienate many Muslims".
Cox, speaking at a 2014 event organised by the Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security at Tel Aviv University and The Israeli Institute for Strategic Studies, mentioned the alleged ‘Trojan Horse plot’ in her speech as an example of secret takeover strategies by ‘Islamists’ in Africa made in order to ‘Islamize’ the continent. She said "“Islam is using the freedoms of democracy to destroy it.”
In 2014, she hosted the parliamentary launch of Sharia Watch UK, an anti-Islam organisation led by UKIP candidate Anne Marie Waters. Cox said sharia law "undermines the most fundamental principles of equality enshrined in British law" in respect of its treatment of women.
In February 2023 it was reported in The Guardian that Cox and Lord Pearson were members of a secret group called the New Issues Group, which had been operating out of the House of Lords for over a decade and had worked with far-right anti-Muslim activists.
Cox has been described as part of the counter-jihad movement.
Eurosceptic and migration critic
Cox is a Eurosceptic. She rebelled over the Maastricht Treaty, supporting an amendment to require a nationwide referendum on ratification on 14 July 1993. In May 2004 she joined three other Conservative peers in signing a letter published by the UK Independence Party urging voters to support it in the elections to the European Parliament. The Leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard, immediately withdrew the party whip, formally expelling them from the parliamentary party. Cox now sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
She sits on the Advisory Council of MigrationWatch.
Geert Wilders
In February 2009, Cox and UKIP peer Lord Pearson invited Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders to show the anti-Islam film Fitna before the House of Lords. However, Wilders was prevented from entering the UK on the instructions of Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. In response, Cox and Pearson accused the Government of appeasing militant Islam.
In 2010, Cox and Pearson successfully hosted Wilders and his film screening in the UK, with 200 members of the English Defence League marching in support of the screening, as well as anti-fascist protests and 50 arrests. Lady Cox said the visit had been a victory for free speech, saying: "You don't have to agree but it is important to debate sensibly in a responsible and very democratic way." At the event, Wilders called for an end to immigration to Europe from Muslim countries, but that Muslims already in Europe who agree to obey the law would be welcome to remain. A Home Office spokesperson said the government "regrets the decision by Baroness Cox and Lord Pearson".
NGO work and Christian activities
Since 2009, Baroness Cox has participated in a conservative umbrella body within the Church of England, the Federation of Confessing Anglicans, led by her close associate, then Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali.
The Tushinskaya Children's Hospital Trust
Baroness Cox is president of the Tushinskaya Children's Hospital Trust and worked closely with its late patron, Diana, Princess of Wales. Baroness Cox and the Princess of Wales opened the hospital's school of paediatric nursing in 1995. The Trust enabled parents to spend more time with their children whilst they were in hospital.
Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust
The Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), founded by Baroness Cox in 2003, works to provide lasting change through aid and advocacy for those suffering oppression and persecution, who are largely neglected by the international media . An Australian branch of HART was established in 2009.
Christian Solidarity International and Worldwide
Cox was active in Christian Solidarity International (CSI) before leading the breakaway Christian Solidarity Worldwide in 1997. She was president of the latter until 2006, when she was replaced by Jonathan Aitken, thereafter remaining as its patron.
During the 1992–93 Armenia-Azerbaijan war, CSI broke Azerbaijan’s blockade of the contested Nagorno-Karabakh territory numerous times to deliver humanitarian aid and document acts of violence against the Christian Armenian inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh. CSI also partnered with the Andrei Sakharov foundation to send aid to refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh. Witnessing the war on the ground, CSI published a detailed account of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War titled Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh co-authored by Cox with John Eibner. Cox visited the Lachin corridor in 2023 and called the blockade of the corridor by Azerbaijan a modern day tragedy.
CSI’s involvement with Sudan began in 1992, when two of CSI’s leaders, Cox and Eibner, traveled to southern Sudan at the invitation of local churches to observe the effects of civil war on the Christian populations there. CSI became especially involved in "redeeming" (buying and freeing) slaves in 1995.
Between 1997 and 2000, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) directly intervened to buy the freedom of alleged slaves, and in a letter to The Independent on Sunday Cox claimed and redeemed 2,281 slaves on eight visits to Sudan. Both the veracity of this claim and the rationale of slave redemption have been questioned by others in humanitarian community. Cox repeated the figure in 2011, adding that she had spent £100,000 buying and freeing slaves, tactic most anti-slavery charities condemned, arguing that such purchases only perpetuate and encourage the trade.
In 1995 she won the Wilberforce Award. She is also a patron of the Christian Institute.
Global Panel Foundation and Prague Society
Cox is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Global Panel Foundation, an NGO that works behind the scenes in crisis areas around the world. Baroness Cox is also a member of Prague Society for International Cooperation, another NGO whose main goals are networking and the development of a new generation of responsible, well-informed leaders and thinkers.
Disability activism
Cox supports disability causes as a member of the World Committee on Disability. In 2004 she was a judge for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award, distributed annually at the United Nations in New York to a nation that has met the goals of the UN World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons.
Syria controversy
Cox has been a supporter of Syria's President Bashar Assad. She visited him during the Syrian Civil War, during the siege of Aleppo, along with Michael Nazir-Ali, fellow crossbench peer Lord Hylton, and Andrew Ashdown, an Anglican vicar. She was widely condemned. Labour MP John Woodcock, vice-president of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Syria, said: "It is shocking to see a British parliamentarian giving international pariah al-Assad a photo opportunity to distract from the brutal and ongoing slaughter he is perpetrating on Syrian families. Whatever good intentions this British delegation has will fail; their presence at this man's side can only strengthen him as his campaign of terror continues." Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Hussein-Ece said it was "shameful" for members of the House of Lords to "sit down for a chat with a mass murderer and a war criminal". Russian state media claimed Cox said that Assad had an “openness for the development of civil society, democracy and change”. After her visit, in early 2017, she went to the US to lobby for president Assad's government. While there, she expressed doubt that Syrian government forces were responsible for Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.
In late 2017, she returned to Syria again, along with former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey. She reportedly met with an Assad advisor named on American and European Union sanctions lists as complicit in Syrian government war crimes. Again, the visit was widely condemned by politicians and human rights groups in the UK, and described by analysts as a “propaganda coup” for the Assad government. In a subsequent parliamentary debate, she referred to Syrian rebels as "jihadists".
Media appearances
Baroness Cox regularly appears on the BBC Daily Politics television programme and has presented the "Soap Box" with "A Moral Maze". As of 2017, she also appeared on Russia TV and other channels associated with the Russian government as she felt they were more frank about Islam's threat to Western traditions.
Honours
Cox has been honoured with the Wilberforce Award.
Bibliography
- A Sociology of Medical Practice (1975)
- Rape of Reason: The Corruption of the Polytechnic of North London (Keith Jacka, with Caroline Cox and John Marks, jt au 1975)
- The Right to Learn (jt au 1982)
- Sociology: A Guide for Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors (jt au 1983)
- Choosing a State School: how to find the best education for your child (jt au 1989)
- Trajectories of Despair; misdiagnosis and maltreatment of Soviet orphans (with John Eibner 1991)
- Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: war in Nagorno Karabakh (1993)
- Islam, Islamism and the West: Is ideological Islam compatible with liberal democracy? (2005)
- Made to Care: the case for residential and village communities for people with a mental handicap
- Baroness Cox: A voice for the voiceless. (1999) Boyd, A. Lion Books. ISBN 0-7459-3735-7
Published Biographies
Lady Cox has been the subject of two published biographies, Baroness Cox: A Voice for the Voiceless by Andrew Boyd; and Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World by Lela Gilbert.
References
- "Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust".
- ^ "Anatomy of Innocence at the National Press Club May 1" (Press release). Washington DC: National Press Club. 19 April 2017.
- ^ Tim Mills et al, The Cold War on British Muslims: An examination of Policy Exchange and the Centre for Social Cohesion Archived 27 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, September 2011
- https://www.amazon.com/Baroness-Cox-Voiceless-Andrew-Boyd/dp/0745937357, p.74
- Baroness Caroline Cox The Foundation Chancellor Archived 18 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Liverpool Hope University, accessed 2 March 2018.
- ^ Baroness Cox: 'If we ignore wrongs, we condone them', 19 June 2011
- Baroness Cox, Bournemouth University
- ^ Champion - Getting to know Baroness Cox, Evangelicals Now, July 2008.
- ^ John Marks obituary Daily Telegraph 2 March 2012
- ^ Martyn Hammersley An Ideological Dispute: Accusations of Marxist Bias in the Sociology of Education During the 1970s, Contemporary British History, Volume 30, 2016 - Issue 2, Pages 242-259 | Published online: 21 December 2015 https://doi.org/10.1080/13619462.2015.1112275
- Madeleine Arnot, Len Barton Voicing Concerns: sociological perspectives on contemporary education reforms, Symposium Books Ltd, 1 January 1992
- John D. Brewer The Public Value of the Social Sciences: An Interpretive Essay, A&C Black, 23 May 2013
- "RCN Fellows and Honorary Fellows". Royal College of Nursing. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
- "Installation of new Chancellor, The Lord Patel". University of Dundee. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2006.
- Jenny Bourne, ‘Anti-racist witchcraft’, IRR News, Institute for Race Relations, 15 January 2015.
- ^ Daniel Callaghan, Conservative Party Education Policies, 1976-1997: The Influence of Politics and Personality, Sussex Academic Press, 2006
- ^ Clyde Chitty Towards a New Education System: The Victory of the New Right? Psychology Press, 1989
- Hughes, Mike 'Western Goals (UK)' Lobster Magazine 21, (May 1991)
- The right tightens grip on education: John Patten is taking the 'anti-trendy' revolution in our schools even farther than his predecessor. Judith Judd and Ngaio Crequer report, The Independent 1 August 1992
- Farrell, Michael 'News and Notes' British Journal of Addiction (1991) 86, p469
- "Failure Page". wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk.
- ^ Hilary Aked Sharia Watch UK and the metamorphosis of Anne Marie Waters, Institute for Race Relations, 28 January 2015
- "No. 49198". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 December 1982. p. 16407.
- "No. 49248". The London Gazette. 27 January 1983. p. 1235.
- "College denies boycott threat". Nurs Stand. 4 (18): 5. 1990. doi:10.7748/ns.4.18.5.s5. PMID 27237873.
- ^ Oscar Reyes Eyes to the Right, The Transnational Institute, 1 February 2007
- John Barnes, "Michael Alison: Hard-working Conservative minister" The Independent obituary, 31 May 2004, p. 31
- Letter to The Times, 8 September 1992
- Elena Bonner Sakharov; John Eibner; Caroline Cox (1993). "Preface". Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno-Karabakh. Christian Solidarity International.
{{cite book}}
:|website=
ignored (help) - Daily Hansard
- https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/armenia.htm Parliament website, group membership
- "Armenian Assembly of America. Armenian Assembly Co-Hosts Special Capitol Hill Event Celebrating Karabakh's Independence" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2007.
- "Armenia Fund USA Tribute Gala at St. Regis Hotel a Spectacular Success". Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 20 September 2007.
- "Tarifplus24.de vergleicht Strom, Gas, Handy, DSL und Kfz-Tarife". www.armeniaforeignministry.com. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2007.
- Commons, The Committee Office, House of. "House of Commons - Register Of All-Party Groups as at 30 July 2015 : North Korea". publications.parliament.uk.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - "Ekklesia - Parliamentarians see golden opportunity to tear down 'Asia's Berlin Wall'". www.ekklesia.co.uk. 15 December 2015. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
- ^ Ahmed, Kamal (15 September 2002). "Top Tory backs blast at gays and lesbians". The Observer. London.
- "The West, Islam and Islamism: Is ideological Islam compatible with liberal democracy?" by Caroline Cox and John Marks. Review, Civitas website.
- parliament.uk: "Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill [HL] 2012-13" Archived 13 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Bill limiting sharia law is motivated by 'concern for Muslim women'". The Guardian. London. 8 June 2011.
- "HL Bill 7 55/2: Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill [HL]" (PDF).
- ^ "Baroness Cox: 'If we ignore wrongs, we condone them'". The Independent. London. 20 June 2011.
- Murray, Douglas (22 October 2012). "The government kicks the Sharia debate into the long grass" Archived 8 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. The Spectator. London.
- Nesrine Malik (20 June 2011). "What is Lady Cox's bill really about?". The Guardian. London.
- "The feisty baroness defending 'voiceless' Muslim women". The Daily Telegraph. London. 22 April 2014
- parliament.uk: "Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill [HL] 2014-15" Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- "HL Bill 21 55/4: Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill [HL]" (PDF).
- Mohammed Amin, Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, Why Baroness Cox's "Shariah Law" Bill is misconceived, ConservativeHome, 29 February 2016
- Ariel Ben Solomon (29 April 2014). "British House of Lords baroness warns Israeli audience about threat of Islamists". The Jerusalem Post.
- New Web Resource Launched to Expose Threat of Islamic extremism, Christian Concern, 25 April 2014
- Townsend, Mark (25 February 2023). "Secret House of Lords circle 'shown to have worked with far right'". The Guardian.
- Aked, H.; Jones, M.; Miller, D. (2019). "Islamophobia in Europe: How governments are enabling the far-right 'counter-jihad' movement" (PDF). Public Interest Investigations. University of Bristol: 24.
- Gaby Hinsliff, "Tories throw out rebel peers for backing UKIP", The Observer, 30 May 2004, p. 2
- ^ David Pallister The numbers game, The Guardian, 21 March 2007
- Advisory Council: Biographical notes, MigrationWatch
- Jay Rayner Master of the numbers game, The Observer Sun 7 January 2007
- The Guardian, "Far-right Dutch MP refused entry to UK", 12 February 2009
- The Daily Telegraph, "Dutch MP Geert Wilders deported after flying to Britain to show anti-Islamic film", 12 February 2009
- ^ Dutch MP Geert Wilders' anti-Islam film sparks protests, BBC, 5 March 2010
- page 92-93, "Baroness Cox: A Voice for the Voiceless" by Andrew Boyd,https://www.amazon.com/Baroness-Cox-Voiceless-Andrew-Boyd/dp/0745937357
- HART website Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- "ABC Brisbane". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
- "Persecution of Christians & Persecuted Churches". Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- "Christiain Solidarity Website 2006".
- Dr. John Eibner, Caroline Cox. "Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh". Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- "A modern day tragedy: Baroness Cox visits the entrance to Lachin corridor". Public Radio of Armenia. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- Hertzke, Allen (2006). Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights. Rowman and Littlefield. p. 112.
- Eibner, Dr. John (December 1999). "My Career Redeeming Slaves". Middle East Quarterly. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
- "This is no scam. The slaves are real", Independent on Sunday, 3 March 2002, p. 27
- "Media Monitors Network: The BBC, Sudan and Baroness Cox: Irresponsible Journalism". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- "Slavery and Slave Redemption in the Sudan (Human Rights Watch Backgroudner, March, 2002)". www.hrw.org.
- ^ Christine Barker, "The unsung hero's song", Birmingham Post, 27 June 1998, p. 37
- Archived 20 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- "Members of Prague Society". Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- National Organization on Disability website, World Committee on Disability Archived 21 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- British peers and priests accused of 'chatting with mass murderer' after meeting Assad in Syria, Daily Telegraph, 5 September 2016
- ^ Former British archbishop meets top Assad adviser in Damascus, Middle East Eye, 28 November 2017
- ^ A British Baroness Wants To Rekindle Donald Trump's Affection For Bashar Assad, Huffington Post, May 2017
- How A British Delegation Enabled Assad Regime’s Propaganda, EAWorldview, 29 November 2017
- Baroness Cox Debate on Syria, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, 21 December 2017
- Equal and Free (11 April 2016). "Baroness Cox discusses Sharia law on BBC Daily Politics". Archived from the original on 19 December 2021 – via YouTube.
- Equal and Free (30 October 2015). "Baroness Cox discusses Sharia law on BBC Daily Politics". Archived from the original on 19 December 2021 – via YouTube.
- Debrett's Peerage. 2000.
External links
Further reading
- "The Feisty Baroness Defending Voiceless Muslim Women", Telegraph
- Survivors of Maraghar massacre: 'It was truly like a contemporary Golgotha many times over' - Caroline Cox
- 1937 births
- Living people
- Academics of the University of North London
- British critics of Islam
- Alumni of the University of Westminster
- Alumni of the University of London
- Alumni of Newcastle University
- British nurses
- British counter-jihad activists
- Crossbench life peers
- Fellows of the Royal College of Nursing
- Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II
- Life peers created by Elizabeth II
- Members of the Freedom Association
- Nurses from London
- People associated with Bournemouth University
- People associated with Liverpool Hope University
- People from Highgate
- People educated at Channing School