Recent crises in Israel and Karabakh make it more vital than ever that we urgently strengthen international laws on genocide

Oct 20, 2023 by Dave Doveton

From Barnabas Aid.

Lord Alton, the veteran religious freedom campaigner, this week called upon the UK government to amend British laws to ensure that those responsible for genocide can be brought to book in British courts.

Delivering the George Bell Lecture at Lambeth Palace, the crossbench peer, reflected on the subject of Genocide, The fight for Humanity: As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Genocide Convention, is there an end in sight, recalling attacks on Yazidis, Tigrayans, Uyghurs, Ukrainians, Armenians and many others. He said that those crimes “should be a spur to complete the work of Raphael Lemkin who asked in 1939 ‘Why is the killing of a million a lesser crime than the killing of an individual?’”

Lord Alton said that while the Genocide Convention was a valiant way of responding to the events of the Holocaust, he asked in the light of the many genocides that have taken place in the last 75 years whether it was “fit for purpose?”

He declared: “Roosevelt’s hopes of a new rules-based international order – where UN blue helmets would separate warring parties and Westphalian solutions would be negotiated and adhered to – is looking obsolete and jaded – nowhere more so than in the Middle East and Ukraine.”

He pointed to Bishop George Bell’s insistence on distinguishing between the Nazis and all Germans, as vital today as we distinguish between Hamas and all Palestinians. He added: “And as we express legitimate fury at despicable crimes committed against Jewish Israelis by Hamas we must reiterate his urging of proportionality and his abhorrence of war crimes, whoever commits them.”

He declared that “Any statement calling for the elimination of Jewish people – from the river to the sea – is by definition genocidal, does not constitute free speech and brings nothing but shame and further tragedy.

The Second George Bell lecture was held at Lambeth Palace Library (16 October 2023) and was organised by the George Bell Fund and Barnabas Aid. The event was sponsored by St Martin’s Episcopal Church, Houston.

Lord Alton challenged the audience during a Q & A to lobby candidates of all the parties as they plan their policies before next year’s General Election, to make Genocide Determination by a UK Court a manifesto commitment. He argued that consumers should be empowered by the labelling of all goods from the Peoples’ Republic of China, made by slave labour and manufactured in a state accused by the House of Commons of Genocide.

Read here.