Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for the Government’s policies of the recognition of acts constituting genocide in the European Parliament’s Resolution, Systematic mass murder of religious minorities by ISIS, agreed on 4 February 2016.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

European Parliament resolutions are not binding and do not create legal obligations on member states.

It is the long-standing policy of successive governments that any judgements on whether genocide has occurred should be a matter for the international judicial system rather than governments or other non-judicial bodies. Our approach is to seek an end to all violations of International Humanitarian Law, and to prevent their further escalation, irrespective of whether these violations fit the definition of specific international crimes.

Ultimately, the best way of preventing future atrocities is to defeat Daesh and its violent ideology. That’s why the UK is playing a leading role in a Global Coalition of more than 65 countries and international organisations to respond to Daesh’s inhumanity.