Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne

Emma Harriet Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (born 16 October 1941 in Oxford) is a British politician. She is a life peer and a member of the House of Lords, and also is a Member of the European Parliament for South East England. She is a member of the Liberal Democrats. She co-founded the Children's High Level Group with JK Rowling which incorporates The Children's Voice campaign, a consumer-facing campaign that aims to make life better for young people in care, across Eastern Europe and ultimately across the whole of the modern world. It aims to inspire the public to help change the lives of children throughout Europe through fundraising and public opinion. Nicholson of Winterbourne is the third of four daughters of Sir Godfrey Nicholson, Bt. and his wife, Lady Katharine (the fifth daughter of the 27th Earl of Crawford) and was educated at St Mary's School, Wantage and the Royal Academy of Music. Prior to her political career, she was a computer programmer and systems analyst from 1962-74, and a diector of the Save the Children Foundation from 1974 to 1985. She was elected a Conservative Member of Parliament for Torridge and West Devon, in [1987]], and was vice-chairman between 1983 and 1987. She joined the Liberal Democrats in 1995. She was made a life peer as Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne in the Royal County of Berkshire in 1997, and became an MEP in 1999. Nicholson is Vice President of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs and a member of the Delegation for relations with Iran the Mashrek Delegation, and of the European Mediterranean Parliamentary Delegation. In 2007 her controversial report on Kashmir was passed by the European Parliament by a majority of 522 to 9. Nicholson also generated controversy through her strong opposition to international adoptions, despite her having adopted her own son from abroad. While the EP's Special Rapporteur for Romania's EU accession, she pressured the Romanian government in 2004 to implement a de facto legal ban on international adoptions out of the country. The measure generated controversy internationally, particularly from prospective parents who had filed papers for adopting a Romanian child but whose efforts were halted by the ban. International and Romanian media also called attention to poor conditions in Romanian orphanages and hospitals where abandoned children remained for prolonged periods. In December 2005 and July 2006, the EP passed measures opposing the ban, although it remained in place after Romania acceded to the EU in January 2007. The U.S. Congress also passed repeated measures and held hearings opposing the ban. On 9 May 1987, Nicholson married Sir Michael Harris Caine, with whom she adopted a son. She became a widow in 1999.

External links

• Emma Nicholson MEP official site
• Emma Nicholson profile at the European Parliament
• Emma Nicholson profile at the site of the Liberal Democrats
• Children's high level group homepage