The UK can take a lead in trying to forecast and avert mass atrocity crimes, MPs suggest in a report published on Monday.
Calling on the government to develop a cross-Whitehall mass atrocity strategy, the international development select committee says Britain could deploy its diplomatic network to warn the world if conflicts are threatening to spill into greater crimes against humanity.
“Britain could show global leadership about these horrific crimes” and help to fill the impunity gap that has developed due to the political deadlock between the west and Russia at the UN security council, the committee says.
The strategy would include monitoring the growth of hate crimes, the passing of laws that marginalise minority groups, and a growth in sexual violence. Not all mass atrocities grow out of conflict, the report said.
Sarah Champion, the Labour MP who is chair of the international development select committee, said: “The last decade has seen terrifying scenes in China, Ethiopia, Syria and Myanmar – to name just a few – and has shown clearly that atrocities don’t only happen in conflict settings.
“The deep divisions at the top of the United Nations mean we are living in what appears to be an era of impunity when it comes to persecution, segregation and abuse of civilians, and empowering civil society to be the eyes and ears of the newForeign Office team dedicated to monitoring mass atrocities.”
The report also says the government, in making decisions on trade, human rights, arms exports, education and humanitarian access migration, needs to have the risk of mass atrocities in mind.
The MPs also urge the government to review its aid cuts to see if they will affect countries where there is a high risk of atrocities being committed.
As foreign secretary, Liz Truss cited “appalling crimes” in Ukraine by Russian forces, explaining “these atrocities have not happened in isolation” but were part and parcel of the “culture that has developed in that country over a number of years”.
She has implemented changes to the national security setup, establishing a six-strong foreign policy and security council, endorsing a 100-strong office for conflict, stabilisation and mediation, as well as sanctioning training in conflict prevention.
The report finds: “Current training and support appear to attach insufficient weight to prevention, which risks leaving staff without the information that they need to recognise and act on the warning signs of atrocities.
“Although some missions acknowledged the value of the training, missions in more than 90% of countries and territories do not appear to have recently accessed it.”
Dr Kate Ferguson, the co-executive director of the charity Protection Approaches and an independent specialist for the inquiry, said: “Time and again, we have observed the extent to which atrocity prevention thinking, expertise, policy and strategy have been lacking at every stage of how [the government] responds to atrocity situations – from early and urgent warning, to when violence begins and is ongoing, through to the wake of mass atrocities and enduring risks of recurrence.
“Examples span the globe but seen recently in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, DRC, China, Ethiopia, India, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
“The government has been making important strides to rectify these gaps in policy, which I commend wholeheartedly, but without a dedicated strategy, supported by the necessary funds, staff and expertise, we will inevitably continue to see opportunities for prevention being missed.”
