Tag: genocide amendment

UK’s Truss ‘Actively’ Seeking to Pin Down Chinese Regime for Uyghur Genocide

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Monday that she has been “actively looking at” ways for the UK to deal with genocidal regimes. It could bring an end to a months-long tug-of-war in which British lawmakers tried to pressure the government into recognising the Uyghur genocide in China’s Xinjiang region. Campaigning at an event hosted…


Peers Push for Former Judges on Genocide Committee

A group of UK peers are pushing to set up a committee of former judges to determine whether there is a genocide taking place in China’s Xinjiang region, after the government prevented them from writing into law a Parliamentary Judicial Committee that can rule on genocide. The best people to rule on genocide are “judges…


UK Government Wins Crunch Vote on Genocide Amendment

The UK government on Monday won a tight race between two versions of a genocide amendment, clearing the last hurdle for its post-Brexit Trade bill to become law. The amendment, passed with 319 votes to 297, may potentially prevent the UK from entering trade deals with countries engaging in genocide. If a responsible select committee of…


UK Government Has to Deal With Genocide Amendment ‘One Way or the Other’: Duncan Smith

If the UK government wants its post-Brexit Trade Bill to become law, it has to deal with the genocide amendment “one way or the other,” former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said on Thursday. The genocide amendment aims to stop bilateral trade with genocidal countries, and is the last remaining obstacle to the Trade…


UK Should Boycott Beijing Winter Olympics Over Uyghur Genocide: Liberal Democrats Leader

Britain should boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics because there is “overwhelming” evidence the Chinese regime is committing genocide against the Uyghur minority, the leader of the UK’s Liberal Democrats has said. “The Liberal Democrats, like many other people, have seen the evidence coming out from Xinjiang in western China that the Chinese authorities are…


UK Peers Pass Lord Alton’s Genocide Amendment for Third Time

In a final attempt to give legal backing to the recognition of state genocide in relation to trade, the UK’s House of Lords on Tuesday passed a “genocide amendment” for the third time. The amendment to the UK’s post-Brexit Trade Bill, proposed by Lord Alton of Liverpool, seeks to establish an ad-hoc Parliamentary Judicial Committee (PJC) that…


Legitimacy of Trading With Genocidal Countries Is the Battle of Our Times: Lord Alton

The legitimacy of trading with genocidal countries is the battle of our times, the UK’s Lord Alton of Liverpool has said, drawing parallels with the opium and slave trades in past centuries. Lord Alton is the author of an amendment to the UK’s post-Brexit Trade Bill often dubbed the “genocide amendment,” which, if adopted, would…


UK Lawmakers to Fight for Genocide Amendment as Compromise Version Pushed Through

The UK Parliament on Tuesday passed a compromise version of an amendment to its post-Brexit Trade Bill on curbing trade with genocidal countries. The amendment (pdf), proposed by Conservative MP Robert Neill and backed by the government, was put before MPs instead of Lord Alton’s original version, which won by a two-thirds majority in the…


UK Government Accused of Playing ‘Parliamentary Skullduggery’ to Block Genocide Amendment

The UK government has bundled the highly anticipated genocide amendment with a different amendment ahead of the Parliamentary vote on Tuesday afternoon, a move that’s been blasted as “shameful” and “parliamentary skullduggery.” Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has called the move a “sad tragedy.” “The sad tragedy is that the Government has so…


‘Very Credible Case’ Chinese Regime Carried out Genocide Against Uyghurs: UK Lawyers

A group of London barristers on Monday published a “landmark” legal opinion concluding that there’s a “very credible case” that the Chinese regime has committed genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. This first formal legal opinion on the Chinese regime’s treatment of Uyghurs came a day before a crucial vote in Parliament on an amendment…