I am grateful to the Government for engaging with the Joint Committee on Human Rights report, “Accountability for Daesh crimes”, and for the response they have provided. There are some areas of welcome agreement; for instance, the Government have reiterated their commitment to ensuring justice for survivors. They rightly agree that where there is evidence of international crimes such as genocide, individuals should be prosecuted for those crimes, not merely for terrorism offences that fail to capture the full horror and scale of what has taken place.
However, let me be clear: for all the Government’s assurances, we are still left with the sobering reality that not one single Daesh fighter has yet been prosecuted in the UK for genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes of any sort. The UK is a signatory to the genocide convention; we are one of its founding champions. We cannot continue to rely on theoretical commitment to it, while outsourcing accountability to other jurisdictions, or to international courts with limited reach and resources. The Government’s response repeatedly emphasises that prosecutions are best pursued
“close to where crimes occur”,
but where that is not happening—and in many cases it is not—the UK cannot, and must not, turn a blind eye. If a British national takes part in genocide abroad and returns to the UK, they should face justice here. There must be no safe haven for perpetrators of international crimes, especially not on UK soil.
Turning to universal jurisdiction, I am disappointed that the Government have rejected the recommendation to amend the International Criminal Court Act 2001 to remove the limitations based on nationality and residency. What is recommended is not a radical departure from established practice. This is about closing a clear loophole that allows perpetrators of genocide and other international crimes to escape justice simply because of where they are from. The UK exercises universal jurisdiction for torture, and for grave breaches of the Geneva conventions, so why not for genocide? This is not just a legal oversight; it is a failure of political will that continues to undermine survivors’ access to justice. The Government claim that sufficient co-ordination exists between the Crown Prosecution Service and the war crimes team, but despite the structures having been in place since 2019, we are yet to see any meaningful outcomes. Structures alone are not enough. Survivors want justice, not process. Co-ordination must be measured by results, and so far, the result is zero prosecutions for international crimes.