Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, during my time as Minister it was my humbling honour to serve for seven years as leading the UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict initiative, picking up the baton from my noble friend Lady Anelay and continuing the valuable work of my noble friend Lord Hague. In thanking my noble friend Lady Helic for tabling this debate, I note her powerful advocacy on this issue.

I had the opportunity of visiting Bosnia several times. Each time I went to Sarajevo. I was taken by a city that bore the scars of war. In Srebrenica, the shadow of the genocide of 8,000 young Bosnian men and boys is real, through the simple tombstones around the green fields and the poignancy of the Mothers of Srebrenica. Like my noble friend Lady Anelay, I sat with survivors of sexual violence—women of extraordinary courage whose lives were torn apart by a weapon of war designed to strip them of their dignity, identity and humanity, yet they continue to speak.

Their testimonies were our inspiration, to ensure that we as a Government did our part to see rape and sexual violence as a deliberate tactic of war and a crime under international law. We worked alongside survivors, activists, prosecutors and religious leaders to ensure that the voices of survivors were heard, evidence was preserved and perpetrators understood that the passage of time would not erase their crimes. I ask the Government to reconfirm, as my noble friend did, that they are committed not only in words but through actions and money in support of survivors.

As we have heard, 30 years after Dayton, survivors are still seeking justice. Barriers are faced. Political leaders such as Milorad Dodik must be stopped. The previous Government put sanctions on him, but we need to do more. His repeated attacks on the constitutional order of Bosnia-Herzegovina, efforts to weaken state institutions, inflammatory language and nationalist rhetoric do not merely create political instability but undermine reconciliation and undermine justice for survivors. There can be no reconciliation without truth. There can be no durable peace without accountability. There can be no future for Bosnia if political leaders like him continue to undermine the institutions.

I say to the Minister specifically that we need to work together with partners—including, importantly, the United States, which has lifted sanctions on Mr Dodik—to ensure that we do not undermine the institutions. We need to re-enforce these sanctions and ensure the sovereignty of Bosnia-Herzegovina is retained. We need to do it not just for the survivors but because it is a collective responsibility for us all.