Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights

Paul Kohler Excerpts

Wednesday 5th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Paul Kohler (Wimbledon) (LD)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Mundell. I congratulate the hon. Member for Stourbridge (Cat Eccles) on securing this debate.

I am pleased to speak about the ECHR and the UK’s membership of the Council of Europe. Across the political spectrum, parties are flirting with withdrawal. It feels like Brexit déjà vu, with the same hollow promises of taking back control, the same disregard for facts and the same blindness to consequence. The siren voices who said leaving the EU would be easy are now saying the same about leaving the ECHR, and thereby the Council of Europe.

Lord Wolfson’s recent report to the Conservative leader, for example, offers a threadbare fig leaf, based on an extremely narrow reading of the law that downplays the legal obstacles and, by his own admission, ignores the political ones. As Lord Wolfson knows, withdrawal would not be a technical exercise in legislative drafting, but a rupture in the constitutional fabric that binds these islands together. Reform, not rupture, should be our guiding principle; the convention can be updated to serve a modern democracy without sacrificing its founding principles.

Two practical measures would command broad support. First, the UK could lead efforts to clarify the scope of key provisions, particularly article 8, so that domestic courts can apply them with greater predictability and closer regard to parliamentary intent. Secondly, rather than withdrawing, we could work with other Council of Europe members to update the living instrument doctrine, ensuring that the Court’s interpretation better reflects democratic consent and contemporary realities. Those would be acts not of retreat, but leadership, strengthening Britain’s international role as a principled champion of the rule of law.

Despite what Lord Wolfson says, there are serious legal barriers to withdrawal. As the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Northern Ireland, I must warn of the profound risks to peace at home. The ECHR is embedded in the Scotland Act 1998, the Wales Act 2017, the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Good Friday agreement. Removing it would require overhauling devolution and entail legislative chaos. Turning to Northern Ireland, withdrawal would breach our international commitments, destabilise all communities, betray those who built peace and force renegotiation of the UK-EU trade and co-operation agreement.

I say this to the Tories, Reform and the Labour leadership: flirting with populism for political convenience endangers both our unity at home and our reputation abroad. As Brexit has shown, dismantling international commitments might sound easy and liberating—but, as we know to our cost, it is neither. It is a hugely damaging, expensive diversion that will only make our problems worse.

[David Mundell (in the Chair)]

Well done for sticking to time.

Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Kohler Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Paul Kohler (Wimbledon) (LD)]

15. If he will take diplomatic steps to help ensure accountability for alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Catherine West)]

The UK Government are committed to human rights in Sri Lanka and are leading international efforts to promote accountability and human rights, including at the UN Human Rights Council. In a visit to Sri Lanka last month, I raised these issues with Ministers in the new Government in Colombo.

[Mr Kohler]

It is over 15 years since the end of the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka, but those responsible for the many war crimes committed during that conflict, including the targeting of civilians and sexual violence, have still not been held accountable. In opposition, the Foreign Secretary called on the Government to follow the example of our allies, including the US and Canada, in imposing sanctions against individuals suspected of committing these appalling acts. Now he is in government, will he commit to finally doing so?

[Catherine West]

In October 2024, the UK and our core group partners got a resolution on Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council, outlining just what the hon. Member says. It renewed the mandate of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to report regularly on Sri Lanka, and to protect and preserve evidence to use in future accountability processes. We consider a range of justice and accountability options, including sanctions, and keep evidence for any potential designations under close review.

Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Kohler Excerpts

Tuesday 14th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Doughty]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about our historical role and responsibilities in relation to Kosovo. KFOR makes a vital contribution to maintaining a safe and secure environment in Kosovo, and of course UK troops play a key part in that. We engage very closely with our partners in Kosovo and across the region, and continue to urge Serbia and Kosovo to engage constructively in the EU-facilitated dialogue. In recent months, I have spoken to both Prime Minister Kurti and Foreign Minister Đurić of Serbia.

[Mr Paul Kohler (Wimbledon) (LD)]

T5. Wimbledon has one of the largest Korean populations in the UK, and there is widespread concern in the community about the ongoing situation in South Korea. Can the Foreign Secretary tell the House what communications, if any, the Government have had with acting President Choi or suspended President Yoon concerning the current situation?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Catherine West)]

The UK Government have been in touch with the South Koreans, our great friends, and we continue to support the arrangements there, any democratic moves towards stability and the ongoing relationship with the UK.

Israel and Palestine

Paul Kohler Excerpts

Monday 16th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Mr Paul Kohler (Wimbledon) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for introducing the debate and the petitioners for calling for it.

I believe I stand with everyone here today when I say that what is happening in Gaza is appalling and unacceptable. The death and devastation have caused anguish around the world and left many—including my constituents in Wimbledon—deeply distressed. The events that started this current cycle of violence on 7 October must not be forgotten—Hamas’s evil attacks are indefensible, and Israel undoubtedly had the right to protect its citizens by targeting those brutal terrorists in accordance with international law—but it is clear that Israel is not acting within international law and that a humanitarian catastrophe is now taking place.

Thousands of men, women and children are being killed in Gaza, without a peaceful settlement in sight. We cannot stand by and let the current situation continue. Children have lost parents and parents have lost children as a result of Israel’s disproportionate response. The killing must stop, with all the hostages released and an immediate bilateral ceasefire. But that alone is not enough, as we desperately and urgently need long-term peace. To achieve that, we must secure an enduring resolution of the underlying issues, which is why my party and I have long advocated for a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders and the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state. I consequently echo the calls of my hon. Friends: the Government must follow the example of our allies, including Spain, Norway and Ireland, in formally recognising a Palestinian state.

That alone, of course, will not solve the issues. We must work with the international community and the Palestinian people to establish a democratic future for Palestine. In my previous role as head of the school of law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, I visited Palestine and worked with Palestinian activists and academics who were committed to such a future and united in their view that Hamas did not represent the Palestinian people.

Furthermore, the Government must take a presumption-of-denial approach to the sale of arms to any country deemed by the Foreign Office to be breaching international standards on human rights. We should be doing far more to sanction the settlers and their illegal settlements, which, as I saw with my own eyes, are designed to undermine and make impossible a two-state solution. The world has had a duty to act, and we must play our part.

Pakistan: Freedom of Religion

Paul Kohler Excerpts

Thursday 28th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Paul Kohler (Wimbledon) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for securing the debate, and am grateful to him and other Members for their excellent contributions.

Pakistan’s constitution enshrines the right of every citizen to

“profess, practice and propagate his religion”,

and in January, the Minister of Foreign Affairs went as far as to claim:

“Pakistan has undertaken wide ranging measures to promote religious freedom and protect minority rights.”

That is sadly and simply untrue. In the face of forced conversions and mob violence, the Pakistani Government are far too often failing to fulfil their basic duty of protecting their citizens.

Even more seriously, there is widespread evidence of the state actively supporting the discrimination of certain religious minorities, including Shi’a Muslims, Christians and Hindus, with laws against blasphemy in particular being used to undermine their human rights and freedoms. Today, however, I will focus on the Ahmadi Muslim community, who are subject to some of the most serious discrimination.

I am proud that many in the Ahmadi Muslim community live and/or worship in my constituency, which is home to Morden’s magnificent Baitul Futuh mosque, the largest mosque in the UK and the worldwide headquarters of the faith. It is from there that the caliph’s regular Friday sermon is televised live throughout the world, but while Ahmadi Muslims can practise in freedom in this country, that is sadly not the case for those watching and listening to him in Pakistan. I have heard from the mosque and from many of my constituents about the persecution that their community faces on a daily basis in Pakistan. In their mosques, their homes and their businesses, Ahmadi Muslims are facing persecution merely for observing their faith.

[Helen Maguire (Epsom and Ewell) (LD)]

I also have a number of Ahmadiyya Muslims in Epsom and Ewell, and it was really shameful that this faith group had to move its home to the UK to avoid exactly this persecution. Does my hon. Friend agree that all religious groups in Pakistan should have the freedom to practise their faith, and that we in this House should be a voice for the persecuted?

[Mr Kohler]

I completely agree. We have an absolute duty to enforce that and make sure that happens.

The Pakistani Government are doing more than just turning a blind eye to this discrimination, with the state actively seeking to marginalise the Ahmadi Muslim community. Unless Ahmadi Muslims declare themselves to be non-Muslims, they are not permitted to stand for office or vote—they are denied a voice in the system that is meant to uphold their rights. It is important to note that this was not always the case: for example, the first Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Sir Chaudhry Zafarullah Khan, was an Ahmadi Muslim. Sadly, however, Ahmadi Muslim freedoms have been undermined by the Pakistani Government over time, but that does not mean that those rights cannot be restored.

For that reason, our Government should be speaking more loudly on this issue. The UK is Pakistan’s third largest trading partner and its largest in Europe. We are consequently not without influence. Disenfranchised and marginalised Pakistani Ahmadi Muslims have very few options at their disposal. It is therefore our duty to raise our voices, and for the Government to do what they can to help protect their rights and those of other religious minorities. I consequently echo my party leader’s calls last year to reconsider Pakistan’s trade preferences. I also hope the Government will work with Ahmadi Muslim refugees across the world and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to preserve those refugees’ safety. As Gladstone said in 1877:

“Nonconformity supplies the backbone of English Liberalism.”

The Government must do what they can to continue this country’s proud liberal tradition, protecting the rights of the Ahmadi Muslims and other religious minorities in Pakistan.