Select committee: International Development Committee
Conclusion 2
Third Report - From Srebrenica to a safer tomorrow: Preventing future mass atrocities around the world
Published 17 Oct 2022
Paragraph 23
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
International Development Committee Promoting dialogue and preventing atrocities: the UK government approach All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Despite the UN Security Council’s role in protecting populations and its considerable powers, it faces gridlock in practice. The threat of an UNSC permanent member exercising its veto constrains international action to prevent and end “conscience- shocking” mass atrocities, which raises fears of an ‘age of impunity’. The UK Government must therefore pursue other means and use other channels to prevent atrocities, while simultaneously advocating multilateral diplomacy and institutional reform.
From: International Development Committee, Third Report - From Srebrenica to a safer tomorrow: Preventing future mass atrocities around the world (HC 149), paragraph 23, 17 October 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 19 January 2023 (deadline 17 December 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with many of the Committee's recommendations on atrocity prevention but says it "cannot commit to developing a written strategy at this time".
- It agrees that atrocity prevention is separate from conflict prevention, and says the Mass Atrocity Prevention Hub in the FCDO's Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation has been established with "central policy ownership" of the approach.
- On the Committee's call for a cross-departmental strategy, it disagrees, stating that it "cannot commit to developing a written strategy at this time" while taking a whole-of-government approach.
- On reporting, it partially agrees: "From 2023" it will expand the existing atrocity prevention section of the annual Human Rights and Democracy Report.
- On resources, it partially agrees but says that, "given fiscal constraints", it cannot guarantee additional resource until budgets are confirmed, with updates "in due course".