Immigration Control (Gross Human Rights Abuses) Bill [HL]

Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Friday 15th December 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone (Con)]

My Lords, I thank and applaud the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, for introducing this Bill on a profoundly important subject. As the House well knows, she brings phenomenal experience as a distinguished lawyer and advocate, renowned for fiercely championing human rights and civil liberties. Her admirable work, past and present, includes six years as chair of the British Council, where I had the privilege of being a deputy chair for some of that time. I well recall her relentless and inspiring focus on human rights and the rule of law—quite a fresh perspective and energy for the British Council, and so hugely important and relevant. She has sat on any number of committees in the most distinguished fashion: as the chair of Justice, a trustee of Refuge and, most recently, leading Mansfield College splendidly as principal for the last six years. She will of course have a long-term legacy in the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, which opened in October this year. The institute will provide a distinguished forum for human rights scholarship and we look forward to the world-class events, research and policy developments it will surely generate.

Respect for human rights is at the heart of our constitution and culture. As the late Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the first judge of the modern era to be Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord, and the first professional judge to be named Knight of the Garter, said:

“In a world divided by differences of nationality, race, colour, religion and wealth”,


the rule of law,

“is one of the greatest unifying factors, perhaps the greatest, the nearest we are likely to approach to a universal secular religion”.

This House is well aware that discussion on legislation against violators of human rights has been ongoing here and internationally for many years. As the noble Baroness—and my friend—said, since the tragic death of Russian lawyer and auditor Sergei Magnitsky, the matter has been given fresh intensity. After uncovering an alleged £150 million fraud by Russian officials, in 2008 Mr Magnitsky was incarcerated in a Moscow prison without trial. As the noble Baroness said, during his detention he was wilfully subjected to torture and received delayed and inadequate treatment for pancreatitis. After 358 days in jail, he died in 2009.

Sergei, as has been said, worked as legal adviser to Hermitage Capital Management, an investment fund and asset management company specialising in Russian markets. The founder and chief executive of this company, Bill Browder, has been unrelenting in his dedication to campaigning for legislation pursuing those responsible for Sergei Magnitsky’s death, and penalising others acting similarly. As the noble Baroness said, he has become a full-time human rights campaigner. So many in business facing adversity move the other way and look at the commercial interests; it is never good for business to become a difficult person, a thorn in the flesh or a relentless campaigner. It is so much easier to move on and create more wealth, and maybe dedicate some of that to philanthropic causes, but Bill Browder is an example to us all in his tenacity, courage, persuasiveness and determination.

Bill Browder was the driving force for the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act 2012 in the United States. The purpose of that legislation, as has been said, is to punish the officials responsible for or complicit in Mr Magnitsky’s death by banning them from the United States and denying them access to the American banking system. When President Obama signed the Act, another prominent human rights lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson QC, saw it as,

“one of the most important new developments in human rights”.

In the last year, other countries have followed America’s example. Estonia introduced a law inspired by the US position in December 2016, followed this year by Canada in October and Lithuania last month.

Following much campaigning, it was a welcome development when in April this year the Criminal Finances Act 2017, passed unanimously by the House of Commons, contained a Magnitsky Act-inspired provision that allows government to freeze the assets of international human rights violators in the UK. I applaud the cross-party support that led to the Government taking that vital step to prevent those responsible for, and complicit in, these appalling incidents from laundering their ill-gotten assets here in Britain.

Human rights are central to our shared values. We should send the clearest possible message, holding ourselves to the highest standards. We recall the Minister’s excellent speech on the then Criminal Finances Bill earlier in the year. She paid tribute to Sergei Magnitsky and recognised his story as,

“only one example of the many atrocious human rights violations committed globally every year”.—[Official Report, 9/3/17; cols. 1476-77.]

We very much look forward to her response now and hope she will agree to go this extra step.

Additionally, let us not overlook the ongoing depredations, the deprivation and the persecution by some national leaders in particular countries. We have to weep at the causes of the fate of Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, of so many in Syria and for those held back in Zimbabwe over the years. The noble Baroness catalogued a further list of examples where we cannot pass by and take no notice.

I wish that there were, every year in every continent, qualified candidates for the equivalent of the Ibrahim award for African executive leaders who, under challenging circumstances, have developed their countries and strengthened democracy and human rights for the shared benefit of their people, paving the way for sustainable and equitable prosperity. We should identify and support the best, but we also have an obligation to target and penalise the worst. Let our law and practice bring an end to the scandal of wrongdoers being welcomed to spend their time and money here without let or hindrance. I support the noble Baroness.