King’s Speech

Baroness Kennedy of Shaws Excerpts

Wednesday 15th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws (Lab)]

My Lords, I felt very proud today. I felt proud that I live in a country with an independent judiciary that operates on the rule of law, even when it means correcting a mistake made by government in its policy. This morning’s decision on Rwanda was made on the facts—let me make that clear: on the facts and the evidence. The decision relied on the evidence received in great volume subsequent to the memorandum of understanding with Rwanda and the great sums of money put at its disposal.

Since the time of that memorandum of understanding, there have been no applications from Afghans, Syrians or Yemenis that have been successful; there has been a 100% refusal rate. What it calls into question is the ability of decision-making to follow due process. Refoulement —the return of applicants to the places where they were persecuted—is happening regularly at the hands of the Rwandan system.

The court also received evidence of secret transfers of people to Uganda. I know from my own work in cases involving Rwanda’s human rights issues that, consequent to the terrible events of the genocide that took place there years ago, the country is still unstable and does not have a reliable legal system. It was on that—nothing to do with human rights law or the European Convention on Human Rights—that the decision was based; it was based largely on laws passed by our own Parliament. It is a vindication of our own legal principles.

I also felt happy this morning. My heart sang when I saw that the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, was still in office. He is a great Minister and I have had lots of dealings with him, so it was marvellous to see that he remains; he is a stayer and a keeper. I was sad to see the noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, go—my compatriot from Scotland was also a great Minister—but I welcome the noble Earl, Lord Minto, in her place.

I also welcome the noble Lords, Lord Young and Lord Roberts. I do not know the former, but I know the latter. The noble Lord, Lord Roberts, is great writer and I have enjoyed many of his books. My son-in-law has just finished reading his book on Napoleon and says that it is a triumph, so I recommend it to all noble Lords.

I want to talk in serious terms about Israel and Gaza. Three Israeli mothers were in London last week, and their pain was visceral. Their children are being held hostage. As the noble Lord, Lord Mann, said, the return of the hostages has to be a priority, and we should call for it over and over again. Their anguish was beyond imagining, yet they still called for peace—it was remarkable. We all share that heartbreak and dismay at the horrific toll being taken by this conflict.

I believe in law, because I have practised it now for 50 years. When people are howling in pain over horrible things that have happened to them, the law is more necessary than ever before. It is why the state, either domestically or internationally, has to deal with the wrongs that are experienced, to be consistent, to apply law and to be true to law. I hear Ministers saying, “It’s all collateral damage. Look at what happened when we had to bomb Dresden during the Second World War, and they bombed Coventry; look at the great toll it took on the people of both cities”. But that was the very reason that the Geneva conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and so on were created after the Second World War: to bring more reason to these horrors and more rules to the way we do things.

The world was revolted by 7 October, but it is also horrified by what it is seeing daily on its screens happening to the children and civilians of Gaza. Children do not start wars and babies do not support Hamas. It is an interesting fact that almost half the population of Gaza was not around when Hamas was voted for all those years ago. So we should not be dancing on pins; we should be calling for an immediate ceasefire. International law makes it clear that the principle of proportionality applies to all uses of military force, but people who are watching do not think this is proportionate. They do not hear the arguments about self-defence requiring this level of life-taking.

The other matter is one of distinction. The principle of distinction means you have to distinguish between military objectives and civilians, but that is not happening, either. Those principles are sacred and we should be reminding everyone of how important they are. They mean that if one party does not adhere to the rule of law—and clearly Hamas has not—it is not a green light to the other side to ignore the laws of armed conflict. So I am in favour of a ceasefire as soon as possible, because of the humanitarian needs but also because I strongly believe that we have to listen to the parents of those children who have been taken hostage. We have to return to the peace table and we have to have women at it. We are living in dark times, but the answer to all these issues is adherence to human rights principles. They do not disappear in times of war; they should be our lodestar, along with the rule of law, in times of crisis.

I was offered a minute and a half by my friend, the noble Lord, Lord Stone, because he finished so quickly, so I shall mention something else: universal jurisdiction. We have limited universal jurisdiction in this country, because it applies only to citizens or residents. That means we would not be able to arrest Hamas people if they arrived at Heathrow Airport, such as the man who suggested from Lebanon that it was possible to repeat and repeat the events of 7 October and that in fact Hamas should extinguish the “Jewish entity”, as he called it. We would not be able to arrest the Wagner military if they arrived at Heathrow. So I am calling on the Government to amend their legislation, when they get the opportunity with the Criminal Justice Bill, to remove those limits. If someone arrives here, it should be possible to arrest them for war crimes, crimes against humanity or the perpetration of a potential genocide.