Antisemitism in International Human Rights Bodies

Lord Mann Excerpts

Thursday 26th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Walney (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Mann (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, we will hear from the Cross Benches next and then the Labour Benches.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

As my friend the noble Lord will know, we are opposed to item 7 in the Human Rights Council, and we will use our leadership to try to persuade others that that is not an appropriate item to have. That is probably what he is getting at, and I suspect we probably agree.

[Lord Mann (Lab)]

My Lords, we were the first country in the world to adopt the IHRA definition. We are regarded by many countries, in some areas, as being world-leading in how we tackle antisemitism, not least in the way in which we have succeeded in working on a cross-party basis for the last two decades in challenging antisemitism, unlike many other countries. The Foreign Office has often been a little shy in briefing our embassies and commissions abroad on some of our successes. Could it perhaps be encouraged to do more in letting our representatives abroad know what some of our successes are, so that we can have an honest dialogue, about both successes and failures, show others what we are doing well and learn from others?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I have not detected and was not aware of the timidity that the noble Lord alluded to. I am very happy to have further conversations on how we can appropriately talk with our allies and partners around the world about the work we have done.