Genocide Determination Bill [HL]

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 17th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con)]

My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Alton, on introducing the Bill. I respect his tireless work on this topic.

States have a legal obligation to prevent atrocities, including genocide, and the Bill would ensure that the UK Government, as a signatory to the genocide convention, would be able to act quickly to fulfil their existing duties the moment a risk was recognised. I declare my interest as co-chair of the Women, Peace and Security APPG.

I first came across genocide when I visited Rwanda in 2007 and, although it was 13 years after the genocide, the horror was still present. In around 100 days in 1994, nearly 1 million Tutsi people were killed and thousands of Tutsi women taken away to become sex slaves. I met women across the country, many of whom had seen their husbands and children hacked to death in front of them. I sat and heard their stories. It was utterly shocking. A few years later I visited Bosnia, and walking in the graveyard with the widows and wives of the missing was harrowing; it was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. There, any young man or male child over seven was taken away and shot. I remember meeting a young man whose twin brother had been killed, who said, “This should never happen again”—but it has. Years on from the horrors of the Holocaust, as we have heard, we have seen repeated incidents.

As has been laid out by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, genocide is an identity-based crime trying to bring about the destruction of a group, sometimes through preventing births, mass rape and the forcible transfer of children to another group. Despite the powerful wording of mechanisms such as the genocide convention, the fact remains that the mechanisms are globally weak and therefore commitments are not integrated into policy or programmes.

In the UK today, who decides when a genocide is occurring? As we have heard, in 2016 the House of Commons unanimously determined that atrocities against the Yazidis by Daesh amounted to genocide but the Government would not formally recognise that, wanting it determined by competent courts but deciding that no British courts could make a determination. Thus the UK had no legislative vehicles to identify genocide and the UK Government formally recognised the situation with Yazidis as a genocide only in 2023, years too late to do anything.

The Bill is designed to address this situation. Of course the ultimate aim is to prevent conflicts occurring, investing more into conflict prevention so that atrocities are never committed in the first instance, saving lives and averting the mass costs of war. However, a report by Mercy Corps and Saferworld last year revealed a sharp decline in the UK’s investment in peacebuilding, violence prevention and conflict resolution over recent years.

Given that the development budget has been slashed and the FCDO seems to be rolling back our soft power, can the Minister advise whether the FCDO considers its current work to prevent atrocities to have been affected? What conversations have been had with other countries which are reassessing their stance on genocide?

Last year, I was lucky enough to visit Lalish, which is the sacred temple of the Yazidis in northern Iraq. They have worshipped there for about 4,000 years. The ISIS attack on the Yazidis was the most horrendous crime, with so many innocent people killed and around 6,000 women taken away to be sex slaves. As the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, has already spoken about, some 12 years later there are still 2,000 women missing, and the children born of rape have not been accepted back into the community.

We should not forget these terrible crimes, so I support this Bill, as it will help fix a gap in our system and help us to fulfil our genocide convention commitments. Hopefully, it will aid the prevention of genocide in the future.