UK ‘trying to water down’ war crimes treaty

Government officials from over 77 countries are currently meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia to negotiate and adopt a landmark treaty, the Convention on International Cooperation in the Investigation and Prosecution of the Crime of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes and other International Crimes.

The purpose of the treaty, also known as the Mutual Legal Assistance Convention, would require governments that have joined it either to investigate and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecute suspected perpetrators of these crimes in their own domestic courts, or hand them over to another country or to an international criminal tribunal for trial there.

The UK and France have proposed amendments which Amnesty International has said would “defeat the object and purpose of the new convention”. These include a change to draft article 6(2) to make the obligation to extradite or prosecute (aut dedere aut judicare) merely discretionary.

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said: “This alarming move could let suspected torturers and war criminals escape justice.

“Bafflingly, the UK is facing both ways on this vital issue – heartily supporting Ukraine’s efforts to prosecute war criminals on the one hand, while on the other, British officials are seeking to water down important rules in the international fight for justice, truth and reparation.

“The government must withdraw these and other harmful amendments.

“The UK has historically supported important measures to bring war criminals to justice, yet it now risks being on the wrong side of history with this important new treaty.”