Author Archives: Baroness Emma Nicholson

Baroness Emma Nicholson writes…We must maintain momentum to end sexual violence in conflict

By Baroness Emma Nicholson | Fri 15th April 2016 - 11:59 am

On a ferociously hot day in Baghdad a few months ago, I listened as a young Yazidi girl slowly and carefully told me her horrific story.

Captured by the monstrous Daesh when her village in Northern Iraq was overrun, Nadia had been sold to the highest bidder, an elderly thug called Selman, who proceeded to rape this poor girl on a daily basis. Any resistance was met with fists and boots.

As we finally abandoned the sweltering heat of the garden for the cool of the hotel lobby, Nadia burst into floods of tears as she told me about one particularly gruesome day.

Selman had become outraged at her attempted resistance to his vicious sexual assaults which left her battered and bruised. So in revenge he allowed all six of his bodyguards to drag her into the bedroom and rape her. One after the other, over and over again.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged sexual violence | 3 Comments

Emma Nicholson writes: Was the war worth it? … a resounding Yes from me

By Baroness Emma Nicholson | Tue 19th March 2013 - 10:16 am

Today is the 10th Anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. We are marking it by publishing reflections on the war and its aftermath by senior Liberal Democrats.

The first, by Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, was written in Basrah, Iraq

I am writing this dispatch from a conference in Basrah where the Iraqi Oil Minister has just been outlining plans to spend US$200 billion to rebuild the hydrocarbons industry, in a country where US $1 trillion is earmarked for reconstruction and where in just a few weeks free and fair local elections will be held.