Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece OBE

Meral Hussein-Ece OBE is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, introduced in June 2010. She was the first British Parliamentarian of Turkish/Turkish-Cypriot heritage. She is President of Liberal Democrats Friends of Palestine and has been a campaigner for Palestinian rights for many years. She was the party’s Equalities Spokesperson from 2011 – 2019. Meral has served on several House of Lords Select Committees, including on ‘Soft Power’, and ‘Sexual Violence in Conflict’. Meral was previously elected councillor to Hackney Council in 1994-2002, where she was Deputy Leader, then served as councillor in the London Borough of Islington 2002 -2010, where she was Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care, and Chair of the Health Partnership Board. She was appointed as Commissioner to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2009 -2013. Meral was adviser to party leader Nick Clegg MP on community cohesion and minority ethnic communities. In 2009 Meral was awarded the OBE in the Queens New Year Honours for services to local government. She received the honorary Decree of Doctor of Letters, from Coventry University in recognition of her work on minority communities, and her input towards the peace process in Cyprus. Meral established the UKs first Turkish-speaking women’s centre, dedicated to supporting Turkish and Kurdish women who were victims of domestic violence, which celebrated its 30th anniversary. She has been active in successfully campaigning to bring Afghan women, journalists, and academics to the UK since 2021.