Sir Menzies Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sir Menzies Campbell on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether military training given to the Burmese Army by UK advisers advises soldiers to refuse orders that could result in human rights abuses.

Mr Mark Francois

This issue was covered in a panel discussion during the export version of the Managing Defence in the Wider Security Context course that was delivered in Burma, in January 2014, by a mixed civil-military team from the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom and one of their academic providers, Cranfield University. The discussion sat within a lecture on Rules of Engagement. An international law academic from Cranfield University, who specialises in the law of armed conflict, set out the legal position with regards to obeying illegal orders and the consequences of disobeying them.