Lord David Chidgey
Parliament:
UK Parliament
Political Party:
Liberal Democrats Lord David Chidgey is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom. A former Member of Parliament (MP) for Eastleigh, he now sits in the House of Lords.
Chidgey is a Chartered Engineer, and at the time of his election in June 1994 he was the Associate Director for a firm of international consulting engineers based in Eastleigh. He graduated as a Mechanical Engineer with the Admiralty at Portsmouth Naval Base before reading Civil Engineering at Portsmouth Polytechnic.
He has managed major projects all over the world, working to provide water, electricity supplies and transport networks in Bangladesh, Brazil, the Middle East and the forests of West Africa. He has also been a senior advisor to government departments, both in the developing world and in Europe and has published a number of technical papers.
Lord Chidgey was first elected for the seat in the 1994 by-election and subsequently held it at the 1997 and 2001 general elections.
He was a Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for: Employment 1994-95, Transport 1995-97, Trade and Industry 1997-99, Foreign Affairs 1999-2005. He entered the House of Lords on 27 June 2005 and he was Liberal Democrat spokesman in defence from 2005 to 2006.
He served on the Lords EU Select Committee for Foreign Affairs, International Development, and Defence from 2006-2010, was appointed a Delegate to the Council of Europe in 2009, before being appointed Liberal Democrat Spokesman for DFID and the FCO (Africa) in the Lords and Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Policy Committee on the formation of the Coalition Government in 2010.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury MP
Parliament:
Parliament of Bangladesh
Political Party:
Bangladesh Awami League Saber Hossain Chowdhury was first elected as Member of the Parliament of Bangladesh in 1996 and was elected for his second five year term in December 2008. Formerly, he served as the Organising Secretary of the Bangladesh Awami League, and Political Secretary to the then Leader of the Opposition, Sheikh Hasina Wazed (the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh).
Whilst in Opposition between 2001 to 2008, he championed human rights and individual liberties, was recognized as a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International, and demanded urgent reforms in the Caretaker Government System and the Election Commission.
He is the first parliamentarian in Bangladesh to have initiated legislation on prohibition of Custodial Torture and Deaths, domestic violence, rights of slum dwellers and repeal of the Leper’s Act which promotes segregation. An active member of PNND, he successfully piloted a Resolution in Bangladesh Parliament in April 2010, in support of UN Secretary General’s 5 point plan calling for Nuclear Disarmament and Non Proliferation.
In April 2010, he was elected as the First Vice President of Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union's (IPU) First Standing Committee on Peace and International Security. He is also the elected Vice President from Asia Pacific Geopolitical Group in this Standing Committee.
Mr. Chowdhury is the Chair of Bangladesh Parliament’s influential and pro-active All Party Group on Climate Change and Environment – a platform in which a third of all MPs in current parliament are members. He is also a Member of the Commonwealth Parliamentarians Association (CPA) Task Force on Climate Change.
Ms. Vini Ciccarello MP
Parliament:
South Australian State Parliament
Political Party:
Australian Labor Party Ms. Ciccarello is the Member for Norwood. For the past 20 years, Ms. Ciccarello has been committed to the Norwood community and has served as Mayor of the City. She has been at the forefront of many of the changes which have made Norwood and its surrounding suburbs amongst the most sought after places in which to live. Ms. Ciccarello continues to be a strong advocate on environmental issues, assisting small business, alternative modes of transport and social welfare issues.
