Parliament

Joe and I are good friends with a professor here, Dr. Kerry. He used to teach at BYU, but he and his family moved to Oxford about 2 years ago to help with various projects here in England. I could talk to you for days about everything he is involved with and how wonderful he is. For one of the many jobs that Dr. Kerry is involved in, he often visits parliament, technically as a visitor, to listen to several committee meetings and give input when asked. Last Tuesday, Dr. Kerry invited me to visit parliament with him and attend a committee meeting.

Getting in to parliament is by invitation only, so Dr. Kerry took me through the security guards, and we had to go through a security check-point, like the airports. Then, you can only take pictures in the first room you walk in to, which is called Westminster Hall. After a king or queen has passed away, they will leave their casket here until it is buried. They may also have leaders of nations come in the Westminster Hall to speak, such as Nelson Mandela.



The head of parliament is Queen Elizabeth II, and then it consists of an upper house and lower house. The upper house is the House of Lords and the lower house is the House of Commons. A large part of their work is done on committees, which is a meeting that I attended.

The Committee meeting I attended was on Sexual Violence in Conflict, (take a look at the website. It's pretty cool.) which is made up of the House of Lords. The members are addressed as "Lord" or "Baroness". Dr. Kerry and I waited outside the room while they were setting up, and then we were ushered into the back row. You're not supposed to speak unless a member of the committee speaks to you.  During the committee meeting, they did an audio/visual call with the UN and Nigeria, and voice call to Switzerland.  Here was the session:


Sexual Violence in Conflict

Subject: Oral Evidence Session

Witness(es): (at 3.45pm) Ms Zainab Hawa Bangura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sexual Violence in Conflict, United Nations (via video link) (at 4.30pm) Ms Chitra Nagarajan, Gender and Conflict Adviser, Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme (& former Director, Gender Action for Peace and Security) (via video link) (at 5.00pm) Ms Pramila Patten, Member, CEDAW (via video link) and Ms Madeline Rees, Secretary General, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (via video link)

Location: Room 2, Palace of Westminster

So we got to hear from the UN as well as several NGO's. Members of the committee came prepared with questions, and each would ask a question to the group that we phoned in to get their thoughts and advice on sexual violence occurring throughout the world. Parliament is made up of many on-going committees, but there are also select committees, like the Sexual Violence in Conflict. These committees are created to address certain issues that come up and they only last until the issue is resolved.

The city lights up at night, and I've heard it is gorgeous during the Christmas Season. Here is Big Ben after the committee meeting. It's so amazing, it could almost be in a movie...