Gordon Brown says that he will change the law to prevent the abuse of ‘universal jurisdiction’ through threats to arrest visiting Israeli dignatories for ‘war crimes’
Do you remember the shameful episode last December when it looked as though an arrest warrant would be issued against former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for “war crimes” on visiting the UK? Or do you remember the shameful episode last September when a London judge had to reject a call to issue an arrest warrant against Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak? Well we had some good news today, or so I thought.
The Telegraph carried this story today:-
Britain must protect foreign leaders from private arrest warrants
In recent years the world has made huge progress in the way it acts against those suspected of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
Significantly, the United Nations has embraced our responsibility to intervene in countries where such atrocities are being committed.
And the complement to this is the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows for prosecution in any country of certain serious offences wherever and by whoever they were committed.
It is our moral duty to ensure that there is no hiding place for those suspected of the most serious international crimes.
Britain will continue to take action to prosecute or extradite suspected war criminals – regardless of their status or power.
This is why the UK was among the first countries in the world to put in place legislation providing for universal jurisdiction over torture, hostage taking and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
Without universal jurisdiction the Afghan warlord Faryadi Zardad, who had fled to London on a fake passport, would not have been brought to justice for a merciless campaign of terror in his homeland.
Britain will always honour its commitment to international justice. The police here remain ready to investigate cases; the Crown Prosecution Service to bring them; the courts to hear them.
But the process by which we take action must guarantee the best results.
The only question for me is whether our purpose is best served by a process where an arrest warrant for the gravest crimes can be issued on the slightest of evidence.
As we have seen, there is now significant danger of such a provision being exploited by politically-motivated organisations or individuals who set out only to grab headlines knowing their case has no realistic chance of a successful prosecution.
After reading this I had similar thoughts to Calvin L Smith:-
About Time
According to this morning’s Daily Telegraph Gordon Brown at last is going to put a stop to the politically-motivated abuse of our court system. About time! How can Britain ever be taken seriously as a peace broker if every time an Israeli official or politician comes to Britain they’re threatened with arrest because a campaign group seeking publicity approached a magistrate? As usual, it’s one rule for Israel and another for everyone else.
However, my bubble has been burst by a far shrewder Melanie Phillips:-
Smoke and Mirrors
The Israeli paper Ha’aretz , along with the Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, appear to have been taken in by Gordon Brown’s noisy but misleading announcement in today’s Daily Telegraph that he will change the law to prevent the abuse of ‘universal jurisdiction’ through threats to arrest visiting Israeli dignatories for ‘war crimes’, an abuse which has caused the cancellation of a number of high-profile visits by Israelis to the UK of which the latest was the planned visit by Livni. Brown wrote:
There is a case now, therefore, for the evidential basis on which arrest warrants can be allowed to be tougher and for restricting the right to prosecute the narrow range of crimes falling under universal jurisdiction to the Crown Prosecution Service alone.
Livni and Ha’aretz naively take this at face value to assume that the UK is to change the law. But this is not so. Brown has merely said he intends to change the law and will consult on the best way to do this. But with a general election to be held by June at the very latest, and with no legislation actually being tabled, there is clearly no time for any such change in the law to occur.
It is actually very easy to end this abuse, as Brown suggests; all that has to happen is for the consent of the Attorney-General or Director of Public Prosecutions to be required before any arrest warrant can be issued, just as is now required for any prosecution. This should be introduced not just in respect of visiting Israelis but to cover any other such vexatious and oppressive arrest stunts. But the reason Brown will not do this is that more than 100 Labour MPs have given notice they will revolt against any such infringement of ‘ancient English liberties’ – a cover for their actual motivation which is their hatred of Israel.
Brown’s announcement today, and the fact that he personally associated himself with the case for a change in the law, are merely designed to camouflage the diplomatically embarrassing fact that he is in fact unable to take measures to prevent ‘lawfare’ in the UK against Britain’s ally by extremist activists determined to delegitimise Israel over its defence against genocidal attack — because so many of his own MPs share that same despicable objective.
The JTA has picked up on this and make a similar point to Melanie Phillips:-
Brown vows to change universal jurisdiction law
LONDON (JTA) — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he will change legislation enabling Palestinian organizations to obtain arrest warrants against Israeli political leaders on suspicion of war crimes.
However, in practice, the legislation is likely to wait until after the general elections in the United Kingdom.
[.....]
However, since the UK is in the midst of an election campaign, and the prime minister might announce the election date before the date the committee has to present its conclusion, it might be too late to enact the law before the election.
Israeli officials and military officers, unwilling to risk having an arrest warrant issued against them, have been avoiding the UK.
Britain wants to continue to be involved in the Middle East peace process, and the British government is aware that it would be marginalized if Israeli politicians refuse to visit Britain.
[.....]
The Conservative Party’s spokesman on Justice, Dominic Grieve, said: “This morning Gordon Brown wrote in the Daily Telegraph that ‘Britain cannot afford to have its standing in the world compromised’ by spurious and politicized war crimes prosecutions. This afternoon he kicked the whole issue into the long grass. The Conservatives would have supported him in resolving the problem, but he has chosen to duck it instead.”
Tags: Israel, Law Moral Ethical, News, Politics
March 5th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Your religion threatens me with eternal torture if I don’t worship your God. That is threatening behavior how do you get away with it.
How many millins have been murdered and tortured in the name of religion.
I am proud to be an Atheist. It’s about time all of the leaders of orghanised religion were brought to justice for the attrocities carrierd out in their name.
Is he not a war criminal because he only murders the children of Muslims and not Chritians