Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-01-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to ensure that the government of Israel complies with the UN General Assembly resolution adopted on 22 December 2015 regarding unilateral economic measures as a means of political and economic coercion against developing countries.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
UN General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding; Article 10 of the Charter of the UN states that the General Assembly “may make recommendations to the Members of the United Nations or to the Security Council”. The UK, and all other EU Member States, abstained on the General Assembly resolution regarding unilateral economic measures as a means of political and economic coercion against developing countries. The UK, the EU and other Member States are of the view that unilateral economic measures should respect the principles of international law, including the international contractual obligations of the State applying them and the rules of the World Trade Organization where applicable. The UK, the EU and other Member States consider that such unilateral economic measures are admissible in certain circumstances in particular when necessary in order to fight terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, or to uphold respect for human rights, democracy, the rule of law and good governance. The UK has no plans to ensure any particular country complies with this resolution.
