Charles Aznavour hands prize to Caroline Cox in Geneva

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS.Cross-bench member of theBritish House of Lords Baroness Caroline Cox was awarded with the prize named after Charles Aznavour for the outstanding achievements in the promotion of Europe-Armenia relations. “Armenpress” was informed from the European Friends of Armenia that Charles Aznavour personally handed the prize. Ambassador Hans- Jochen Schmidt and Deputy RenéRouquet, as well as representatives of the international organizations in Geneva and the Armenian Diaspora also participated in the ceremony held in Club Suisse de la Presse in Geneva.

Caroline Cox, Baroness CoxFRCN: born 6 July 1937) is across-bench member of theBritish House of Lords. She also is the founder and CEO of an organization called the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART). She has campaigned for humanitarian causes, particularly relating to disability,and has championed a range ofChristian eurosceptic and marginal causes, including action on forgotten wars inAfrica.

Baroness Cox was born asCaroline Anne McNeill Love, the daughter of a surgeon fromHertford, inHertfordshire. She was educated at Channing School in Highgate. She became a state registered nurse atLondon Hospital from 1958, and a staff nurse at Edgware General Hospital from 1960. She married Dr Murray Newall Cox in 1959, remaining married to him until he died in 1997. The couple had three children, two sons and one daughter. In the late 1960s she studied for a degree at theUniversity of London where she graduated with afirst class honours degree in sociology in 1967; as a research assistant at theUniversity of Newcastle upon Tyne, she obtained a masters degree in economics.

On leaving, Cox became a sociologylecturer at thePolytechnic of North London rising to become Principal Lecturer. From 1974 she was head of the Department of Sociology. In 1977 she moved to become Director of the Nursing Education Research Unit at Chelsea College of the University of London. She was also made an Honorary Fellow of theRoyal College of Surgeons. She was also concerned with education and backed the reforms to reduce powers ofLocal Education Authorities in 1993, arguing for a more strongly religious element to teaching. Her background in sociology led her to write books on the subject for nurses, and she also co-wrote a book (Rape of Reason) attacking allegedcommunist activity at the Polytechnic of North London in 1975. She was foundingChancellor of Bournemouth University.

She is adirector of theEducational Research Trust, theAndrei Sakharov Foundation and theCentre for Social Cohesion. In 2006 she received an honorary law degree from theUniversity of Dundee and was installed as the Chancellor ofLiverpool Hope University in the same year.

Her peerage was announced on 15 December 1982 on a list of "working peers», on the recommendation ofPrime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and she took the titleThe Baroness Cox, of Queensbury in Greater London on 24 January 1983.Cox initially sat as aConservative and served briefly as a Baroness-in-Waiting, in 1985, but disliked the job and instead became a Deputy Speaker of theHouse of Lords from 1986 to 2006.

Cox was a Director of theConservative Philosophy Group from 1983-85.In 1987 she co-founded theCommittee for a Free Britain funded byRupert Murdoch which at one point called for "the legalization of all drugs"and which used "anti-gay material during their anti-Labour campaign in 1987"

During the debates over the Education Reform Bill, Cox worked together withMichael Alison to ensure that a commitment was made that state education was 'broadly Christian' in character. She became a frequent contributor to Lords debates on Africa, and also raised other "forgotten conflicts" in letters to the press. She was already highlighting fighting inSudan in September 1992, criticizing Sudan's Islamist government and backing Dr.John Garang’s Christian-dominatedSudan People's Liberation Army, and also criticized the actions of the government of MuslimAzerbaijan in the Armenian Christian breakaway region ofNagorno-Karabakh.

Cox is aEurosceptic. She rebelled over theMaastricht Treaty, supporting an amendment to require a nationwide referendum on ratification on 14 July 1993.In May 2004 she joined three other Conservative peers in signing a letter published by theUK Independence Party urging voters to support it in the elections to the European Parliament. The Leader of the Conservative Party,Michael Howard, immediately withdrew theparty whip, formally expelling them from the parliamentary party. Cox now sits in the Lords as acrossbencher.

In June 2002 Cox hosted a launch event forGreat Britain has Fallen!, a book written byNigerian missionary Wale Babatunde and also wrote endorsements saying the book "showed the way forward" for reversing Britain's moral decline.

She is one of 18 co-founders of theOne Jerusalem organization, which aims at "maintaining a united Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel". On 24 January 2005, she became Co-President of the Jerusalem Summit.She is the founder of The International Islamic Christian Organization for Reconciliation and Reconstruction.

Baroness Cox is the Chair of the British Armenia All-Party Parliamentary Group.She is also a strong supporter of self-determination for the Armenians ofNagorno-Karabakh, which is officially a part of Azerbaijan. Paying tribute to Cox's dedication to the Armenian cause,Frank Pallone, Jr., the co-chairman of the US Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, called her a "true Armenian nationalist who would give her life for Armenia and Karabakh".On 15 February 2006 she was awarded theMkhitar Gosh Medal by the President of the Republic of ArmeniaRobert Kocharyan

She was president ofChristian Solidarity Worldwide until 2006, thereafter remaining as its patron. Between 1997 and 2000, Christian Solidarity Worldwide directly intervened to buy the freedom of alleged slaves, and in a letter toThe Independent on SundayCox claimed to have redeemed 2,281 slaves on eight visits to Sudan.In 1995 she won theWilliam Wilberforce Award. She is also a patron of the Christian Institute.

Baroness Cox is the Vice Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea.The Group has stated that the Obama administration brings with it an opportunity for a formal cessation of hostilities and normalization of relations withNorth Korea.

In January 2010 she addressed a meetingorganized byOdinic Rite activistAlan Harvey and Gary Cartwright a formerNational Democrate candidate and organizerand contributor toholocaust denier David Irving’shistorical revisionist Focal Point website.