The Right Honourable The Baroness (Caroline) Cox of Queensbury (born July 6, 1937) was Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords from 1985 to 2005 and is currently a cross-bench peer (Independent Member of the House of Lords).  From 1985 to 1986 she served as a Baroness-in-Waiting to Her Majesty The Queen.  As Chief Executive of HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust), which fosters humanitarian aid missions for suffering peoples around the world, Baroness Cox is a voice for the voiceless, advocating on behalf of HART’s partners in Parliament and around the world.  She currently serves as Vice President of the Royal College of Nursing. She is also a strong advocate for disability causes, serving as a Member of the World Committee on Disability and a Judge for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award.  In 2004, she was appointed a Special Rapateur by the Britsh Foreign and Commonwealth Office for Religious Freedom and Belief. 

Lady Cox's work in the field of humanitarian aid has taken her on many missions to conflict zones, including over 65 visits to the Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh; countless visits to Africa including Sudan, Uganda and Nigeria; to the Karen, Karenni and Chin peoples in the jungles of Burma; and to communities suffering from conflict in India and Indonesia. She has visited North Korea, helping to promote parliamentary initiatives and medical programs. In her work as a social scientist, she has been instrumental in helping to change the former Soviet Union policies for orphaned and abandoned children from institutional to foster family care.