Genocide Determination Bill [HL]

Baroness D'Souza Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 17th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness D'Souza (CB)]

My Lords, if, as the Government constantly assert, only a court ruling can determine acts of genocide, the courts must have the powers to carry out this function. At present, they do not. This renders the 1948 genocide convention no longer fit for purpose, and the commitment, following the Holocaust, to “Never again” becomes almost meaningless, as we have heard. This modest Bill seeks to enable any person or representative organisation affected by genocidal actions to apply to the UK courts to decide on whether genocide has taken, is taking, or is likely to take place. In so doing, a response from the Government is required and the relevant Minister would be obliged, within time limits, to refer the case to the appropriate international bodies—the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court or other international bodies.

The arguments for such powers have been well rehearsed over many years, and equally so too have the arguments against. Both sides were expressed in some detail in the course of the atrocity crimes debate in June in this Chamber. The arguments that this focused Bill is urgently needed can be in no doubt. The evidence lies in the numerous credible reports on past acts of genocide and on current threats of genocidal action.

A recent book, Genocide in Gaza, by the world-renowned Israeli scholar, Avi Shlaim, sets out in forensic legal details the actions—which he states are the absolute antithesis of Jewish values—perpetrated by the Netanyahu Government between 2023 and 2024 in Gaza in response to the murder of Israelis on 7 October 2023. Shlaim describes the Netanyahu policy as one of deliberate killing or persecution intended to partially or wholly destroy the people of Gaza. It is difficult to refute his conclusions of genocidal intent and actions on the part of the Israeli Government.

The independent International Commission of Inquiry, following the case brought before the ICJ in 2024 by South Africa into Israel’s conduct in Gaza, cites intentionally directed attacks on civilians, of whom many were women and children; forcible transfer of civilian populations; destruction of water and electricity infrastructure, which is indispensable for survival; starvation as a method of warfare; and wilfully impeding relief supplies. These actions more than fulfil the criteria for genocide as set out in the 1948 convention.

In April 2016, the House of Commons unanimously recognised the atrocities committed by ISIL against the Yazidis and other religious minorities in 2014 as genocide. At first, the Government declined to act due to the lack of formal determination by the courts, itself guaranteed by absence of both legal and procedural mechanisms to lodge a case. This underlined the disconnect between the policy of reliance on a competent court, where no court possessed the jurisdiction to make such a determination.

The UK continues to supply the Israeli Government with arms and political support and has refrained from naming the atrocities in Gaza as genocidal. Meanwhile, some UK members of ISIL involved in the Yazidi slaughter remain free and unencumbered by criminal charges. The UK is failing in its international obligations under the genocide convention to prevent and to punish genocide. In his response to the atrocities debate, the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Collins, stated that although the Government agreed with the underlying objectives of the Bill, they did not support the means proposed. It is to be hoped that this Bill will be allowed to reach its final stages, but if not, that the Government will instead publish their own Bill to meet the underlying objective, and in so doing meet their international obligations.