Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the prospects of achieving a UN Security Council resolution referring Syria to the International Criminal Court.

Mr William Hague

On 22 May Russia and China vetoed a resolution that would have referred the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court, despite it having overwhelming international support, including from 13 members of the UN Security Council, 65 co-sponsors, over 100 Non-governmental organisations from across the world and the Syrian National Coalition.

Nonetheless, we need to ensure that those responsible for atrocities in Syria are held to account. Russia and China cannot indefinitely shield those responsible for horrific crimes. The UK is funding efforts to document war crimes and crimes against humanity, and we are pressing for an expansion of EU sanctions to cover those responsible.