Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on 20 April 2016, Official Report, column 996, what evidence has been gathered and preserved of potential (a) war crimes and (b) genocide in (i) Syria and (ii) Iraq.

Mr Philip Hammond

Evidence is being gathered and preserved by a range of state and non state actors for potential prosecutions. The UK is supporting a number of these efforts. In Syria, the UK is funding the work of NGOs who are gathering evidence of Human Rights violations committed across Syria, including by Daesh and the Asad regime. This is being done to the standards required for criminal prosecution against high level perpetrators in a domestic or international court. In Iraq, we are considering how the UK might best complement similar efforts already underway. Working with international partners, we are doing everything we can to assist in the gathering and preservation of evidence that could in future be used by judicial bodies to make a judgement on this matter. It is vital that this is done now, before evidence is lost or destroyed.