To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the reply of Earl Howe on 15 March (HL Deb, col 1736) that in the UK a declaration of genocide is "a matter for the judicial system", what they consider to be a prerequisite for such a declaration to be made by British judicial authorities; who is responsible for instigating this; and what is their response to the recent declarations of genocide against Daesh made by the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Answered on
5 April 2016
The judiciary in England and Wales does not make general declarations on genocide. It is a long-standing Government policy that any judgements on whether genocide has occurred should be a matter for the international judicial system.
Ultimately, the best way of preventing future atrocities is to defeat Daesh and its violent ideology. The UK is playing a leading role in a Global Coalition of 66 countries and international organisations to respond to Daesh's inhumanity.