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Written question asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench) on Tuesday, 8 December 2015, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 22 December 2015. It was answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Conservative) on Wednesday, 16 December 2015 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Genocide

Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 7 December (HL4065), whether they are in the process of submitting evidence of genocide against Yazidis and Assyrian Christians to international courts, and if so, which ones; when the international courts last declared a genocide to have taken place; and when the international courts last initiated a trial for genocide, and against whom.

Answer

We are not submitting any evidence of possible genocide against Yezidis and Christians to international courts, nor have we been asked to.


The most recent occasion on which an international court found genocide to have occurred was on 10 June 2010, when the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted several of the accused in the Prosecutor v. Popović et al. case for either committing, conspiracy to commit, or aiding and abetting, genocide in and around Srebrenica and Žepa in 1995. These convictions were subsequently upheld by the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY on 30 January 2015.


The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) initiated a trial against Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, two former Khmer Republic senior officials, which remains ongoing, and includes charges of genocide against the Cham and Vietnamese people. Evidence relating to the genocide charges began being heard on 7 September 2015.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL4327
Session
2015-16
Related items
Iraq: Genocide
Monday, 7 December 2015
Written questions
House of Lords
Genocide
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects
Iraq Genocide International courts Trials Christianity Yazidis
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk