The peer behind an amendment aimed at preventing the Government from signing trade deals with countries suspected of committing genocide vowed to keep on fighting after “a compromise” was reached.
Catholic crossbench peer Lord Alton, who put forward the amendment in the House of Lords, told The Tablet: “The Government has inched its way to finally accepting that its policy has consistently failed victims of genocide [and] left a way open for Parliament to name atrocity crimes for what they are and for our duties under the 1948 Convention on the Crime of Genocide to be fulfilled.”
Luke de Pulford, coordinator of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, who worked with Lord Alton on the amendment, tweeted that “massive advances” had been made for the cause of human rights.
They were reacting to the defeat on Monday of the Lords’ amendment to the Trade Bill by 318 votes to 300. That amendment would have required a parliamentary panel of judicial experts to determine whether a proposed signatory to a trade agreement with the UK was committing genocide.
Instead a government amendment passed that trade minister Greg Hands said would require the Government to formally put in writing its position if a select committee publication raised “credible reports of genocide in a country with which we are proposing a bilateral free trade agreement.” Mr Hands said this was a “compromise” and “a substantial concession”.
Mr Hands argued that the Lords proposal “blurs the distinction between legislative and judicial and runs contrary to Government policy that is for competent courts to make determinations of genocide”. However the Government had rejected an earlier version of the legislation that would have empowered UK courts to make a determination of genocide.
Lord Alton criticised the Government for not taking a stronger stand. “The Government has … continued to resist the fundamental principle that the UK should not trade with a State credibly accused of Genocide.” He said the huge support the amendment had garnered in both Houses showed that “this argument is far from over and will not go away.”
Although Monday’s vote was the final vote on the amendment, he said there were “further parliamentary opportunities which will be pursued”.
De Pulford tweeted: “This campaign has secured huge wins and UK #Genocide debate will never be the same. Overwhelmed with emotion at what we have been able to achieve.”
Since Lord Alton introduced the amendment in the Lords in December, concerns over China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority and scrutiny of Britain’s relationship with Beijing have rapidly intensified.
Former Conservative party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said before Monday’s vote that he was “sad” the Government had not compromised on the matter. Amid increasing concerns over China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority, he said: “We’re not frightened of finding that this is genocide and we’re not frightened of saying it from the steeple-tops. We know that what we have to do is stand up for those who have no voice.”
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