On June 4th there will be a full House of Lords debate on Government policy in dealing with genocide and atrocity crimes and the Private Members Bill on Genocide Determination will receive its First Reading.
Lord Alton of Liverpool
My Lords, it is always a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford. As the gracious Address rightly notes, antisemitism, political fragmentation and alienation are challenges that demand we work far harder to renew our institutions and put the national interest first.
Two issues that I want the Government to address are resilience and dependency.
The most pressing challenge is the deadly quartet—as the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, referred to them—of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. I have some skin in the game as I have collected sanctions from each of them.
Their lethal challenge to the liberal democratic order represents one of the most severe threats since World War II. Consider how that axis works. It utilises Hong Kong, for instance, for the shadow fleet of tankers selling oil to China and for companies producing tech parts found in Iran’s drones and ballistic missiles.
The BBC reports that at least 11,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to fight for Putin in Ukraine—some have been used as human minesweepers. Iran has provided Putin with weapons, ammunition and technology. In facing this axis, our national resilience undoubtedly needs to be bolstered by increased defence spending now, before it is too late, and by a coherent strategy to defend our citizens and values.
In travelling through many dictatorships, including the former Soviet Union, Burma, North Korea and China, I have seen at first hand an inspiring desire for the liberties we often take for granted.
That desire is exhibited courageously in Ukraine and vibrantly in Taiwan. On Monday, I co-chaired a meeting in Parliament addressed by Thae Yong-ho. He was the deputy North Korean ambassador in the UK and defected in 2016, choosing democracy over dictatorship. We discussed a United Nations commission of inquiry report documenting North Korea as a state that
“does not have any parallel in the contemporary world”.
The report called for its crimes against humanity to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court. It never has been. In its political prison camps, hundreds of thousands continue to perish.
This is a country where a 22 year-old boy was publicly executed for listening to South Korean music.
In China, I visited persecuted Christians, witnessed the suppression of Buddhists in Tibet and met Uyghur Muslims enduring genocide, as referred to earlier by the noble Lord, Lord Callanan.
In Hong Kong in 2019 as an international election monitor, I saw an unprecedented turnout, with pro-democracy candidates gaining a landslide victory in the city’s last fair and free elections. The CCP communist regime responded by destroying “one country, two systems”, disqualifying elected legislators, enacting the national security law and imprisoning up to 1,900 political prisoners in Hong Kong. They include people such as the young man Joshua Wong and the remarkable British citizen Jimmy Lai, who, unless released, will undoubtedly die in solitary confinement.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights, which I have the privilege to chair, identified China, in its report on transnational repression, as the greatest internal threat and called for it to be placed in the advanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme.
In our report on supply chains and slave labour, we called for radical change to the Modern Slavery Act to prevent slavery in global supply chains. Will those recommendations feature in forthcoming legislation?
For British industry to be able to provide jobs and to compete, there must be an end to unfair competition based on slave labour. Resilience demands that we address a trade deficit of £43.5 billion with China rather than adding to it. We must urgently wean ourselves away and trade instead with partners such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, India and other emerging democracies. Our ability to rebuild a resilient manufacturing base, to compete fairly and to protect jobs against rising unemployment will always be compromised by states such as China that use slave labour.
As the JCHR report on supply chain transparency and my amendment to the Energy Act made clear, national energy resilience cannot be dependent on solar panels made by Uyghur slave labour.
The dangers of the moment, including prohibitive energy bills, also require us to open new gas and oil fields and responsibly utilise natural resources.
As with the challenge from AI, currently being examined by the JCHR, we risk making the same mistake of the 1980s of too rapid deindustrialisation and using state handouts, which are no substitute for the dignity of work. No one should be better off on benefits than in doing a day’s work.
A resilient democracy must bolster its citizens and its international alliances, acting confidently in promoting the rule of law and democratic values. To that end, the Government should accept, for instance, the JCHR recommendation to extend universal jurisdiction against perpetrators of mass atrocity crimes, an issue to which I will return in the balloted debate which I have secured for 4 June and through my Private Member’s Bill on genocide determination.
I hope that, when those measures come forward, the Government will demonstrate that they mean what they say when, in the words of the gracious Address, they will take measures which contribute to the UK’s
“strength on the world stage”.
===========================================
Unabridged Version of Speech – reduced because of time limitations in the debate.
In the generation before mine a love of democracy took my father and his four brothers to war against the Nazis – one of them paying with his life.
It’s the same love that animates the courageous people of Ukraine, the pro democracy advocates in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the democrats who want an end to the appalling war in Sudan – where is any reference to Africa in the King’s Speech? War in Sudan and conflict in the DRC in the battle for rarer earths have regional and international repercussions.
Whether or not we are teetering on the edge of a Third World War, with over 117 million people forcibly displaced worldwide due to conflict, violence, and persecution, millions are experiencing man made hell with war lords and dictators sneering at international law, human rights and democracy.
Failure to tackle root causes fills the ocean beds with corpses, small boats with trafficked people and vast refugee camps from Chad to Uganda.
Yet, in visiting places like Darfur I have always been amazed by the spirit of resilience and hope.
And in travelling to occupied Soviet Communist countries, including Ukraine and Poland, I saw first hand how the desire for democracy could not be erased by the Kremlin’s missiles, tanks, gulags and puppet dictators.
in 1997 as a new Member of the House of Lords, I travelled illegally into Burma and met our brave Karen allies who had been fighting since 1948 – and still do – to gain the democratic rights which we too easily take for granted.
In China, I visited the underground persecuted Church, saw first-hand the suppression of Tibetan Buddhists, met Uyghur Muslims in Western China and having been part of the international team that monitored the last fair and free elections in 2019.
I saw unprecedented turnout with pro democracy candidates gaining a landslide victory. The flagship pro-Beijing party lost 96 seats.
The Communist regime responded by destroying two systems one country, disqualified three quarters of the legislators, enacted the National Security Law, and imprisoned up to 1,900 political prisoners in Hong Kong. They include Joshua Wong – a recipient of the Westminster Award for Human Rights Human Life and Human Dignity – and the remarkable British citizen, Jimmy Lai, the Godfather of Hong Kong democracy, and who has effectively been given a life sentence, and unless released, will die in solitary confinement Stanley Prison.
Earlier this week I chaired a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea – a country I have visited on four occasions – and which is described in a United Nations Commission of Inquiry report as a State that “does not have any parallel in the contemporary world“.
The landmark inquiry documented crimes against humanity including extermination, enslavement, torture, and deliberate starvation and called for its leaders to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.
In its diabolical network of political prison camps, hundreds of thousands of inmates have perished. This is a country where a 22-year-old man was publicly executed in the South Hwanghae province for listening to South Korean songs and watching films.
On Monday we heard from Thae Yong-ho who served as deputy ambassador at the North Korean Embassy in the UK.
He defected in 2016, telling me that it was the sight of our democracy in action and the relentless defence of the human rights of his people which led him to escape and ultimately to be elected to the democratic National Assembly of South Korea.
Abraham Lincoln said democracy is a “new birth of freedom” – Mr.Thae, Jimmy Lai and millions of others would agree.
All over the world oppressed people continue to look to this country – and especially this place – as the guardian of freedom and democracy.
All the more reason why collectively we should work harder to renew our institutions and put the national interest before narrow interests – be they partisan or personal – and which through fragmentation has led to a loss of public trust – and which, in the north west of England for instance, where I live, has led to widespread alienation and disillusionment, which mainstream politicians can increasingly see as a plague on all their houses.
One of the ghosts which has been reawakened is antisemitism, rightly identified in the King’s Speech as a corrosive national affliction. I once chaired a Roscoe Lecture for Liverpool John Moores University which was delivered by the late Lord Sacks. His theme was “learning to live together.”
Rabbi Sacks saw anti-Semitism as a “mutating virus” which not only poses a threat to Jews but to the whole of society. Yes, it begins with the Jews but never ends there. It is a canary in the mine – a warning of a breakdown in community cohesion and of our traditional affirmation of democratic freedom, human rights, and our protection of minorities.
Too many universities have recently ignored toxic warning signs – failing our Jewish students and falling far short of what a university should be for.
There should be no place on a university campus for ostracism, exclusion, harassment or bigotry. Vice Chancellors need to be decisive in confronting it.
And in this place we can do more to strengthen mutual respect, free speech, scrutiny and holding all governments to account.
But instead of efficient well judged legislation, too many Bill were left unfinished in the last Session and carried over – everything from Hillsborough – whose victims have been waiting since 1989 for justice and the duty of candour to the families of 3,500 fatalities in Northern Ireland’s Troubles. These now join 37 more new Bills.
We do not have enough pre legislative scrutiny and we need to make better use of our Select Committees in examining proposals before they come to us.
I have the honour to chair the Joint Committee on Human Rights –chairing more than fifty meetings since becoming chair. We are currently examining AI and Human Rights, the human rights of Children in Social Care and the role of protest and proscription in a democratic society.
It is depressing to record the number of times that unanimous all-party reports – including those on the role of UK citizens fighting for ISIS, none of whom have been prosecuted for their role in genocide; on supply chain transparency and modern slavery; and the rise of transnational repression – have hit the buffers in Government Departments.
Select Committee Reports – often left undebated – over-used secondary legislation, and increasingly unanswered parliamentary questions, may delight Ministers and civil servants, but undermines parliamentary democracy and does nothing for good governance.
Which brings me to my two other points about resilience and dependency.
The most important challenge facing the UK what Lord Robertson of Port Ellen has described as the “deadly quartet” of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.
Like the four apocalyptic horsemen this axis is actively working together to challenge and undermine the global liberal democratic order. It represents one of the most severe threats to international security since World War Two.
Note that Hong Kong is now home to some of the ship managers running the shadow fleet of tankers selling oil to China and companies producing tech parts found in Iran’s Shahed drones and ballistic missiles.
And the axis provides technical help and personnel too.
The BBC has estimated that at least 11,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to fight for Putin in Ukraine, to recapture parts of western Kursk, and around 2,300 North Korean soldiers have died
Iran, through its 2025 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty with Putin has provided hm with massive quantities of drones, missiles, ammunition, and manufacturing technology.
All four States are implacably opposed to democracy and use imprisonment, torture and executions to impose their will – straight out of the totalitarian playbooks of Hitler, Stalin and Mao.
Yet, instead of our political leaders jointly calling for an immediate hypothecated tax to defend the realm we are left without a jointly agreed Strategic Plan and promises of adequate resources in years to come when it may prove to be too late.
Our national resilience needs to be bolstered through our armed forces but also in our defence of our citizens and the things we stand for.
The JCHR report on transnational repression identified China as the greatest internal threat and called for it to be placed in the advance tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) – and there is nothing in the King’s Speech addressing our concerns about the use of SLAPPs.
In our report on Supply Chains and Slave Labour we called for radical changes to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 – including Section 54 on the requirements businesses are taking to prevent modern slavery in their business and global supply chains. Could the Minister please tell us whether this will feature in any of the 37 new Bills?
The need for a resilient manufacturing base – not compromised by imports using slave labour – is partially recognised in the Gracious Address – and I welcome that – not least in the manufacture of steel.
But with the challenge of AI to many jobs we risk repeating the mistakes of too rapid deindustrialisation of the 1980s – with families and communities left dependent on State handouts rather than the dignity of work.
The OBR predicts that unemployment of 1.7 million people will rise to over 5% this year with, shockingly, 713,000 young people (15.8%) unemployed. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits has risen to 1.69 million. More than 600,000 individuals are receiving welfare benefits for anxiety, depression, and mood disorders – some of which may be linked to being without work. It should never ever be possible to be better off on benefits than in doing a day’s work.
Personal as well as collective resilience should be written into every policy initiative.
I was glad to see that the Gracious Address promises more “homegrown renewable energy”.
For decades, since the 1990s I have championed the Mersey Barrage – I hope its time and the jobs it will bring has now come.
But as the JCHR Report on Supply Chain Transparency – and an amendment I promoted to the Energy Bill – make clear, national resilience cannot be dependent on solar panels made by Uyghur slave labour in Xinjiang – a community subjected to genocide, according to a Motion passed without dissent by the House of Commons.
When will the Government be in a position to respond to the concerns about this raised with them and with Great British Energy by me?
The dangers of the moment – including prohibitive energy bills for ordinary households and companies – also requires us to open new gas and oil fields, to responsibly utilise our natural resources, and to utilise some of our unemployed workforce.
Let me conclude by reiterating my argument about less dependence and more resilience, and a reaffirmation of our belief in our Parliamentary democracy.
The UK currently runs a trade deficit of £43.5 billion with China. We must urgently wean ourselves away and trade instead with counties like Taiwan, South Korea, India and other emerging democracies.
A resilient democracy like our own must bolster its alliances but also act confidently – not least in promoting the rule of law and democratic values.
To that end, the Government should accept the JCHR recommendation to increase the possibility of universal jurisdiction against war lords believing they can live work or invest here with impunity.
We should defend minorities like the oppressed Yazidis and Uyghurs and defend the thirty articles of the Universal declaration of Human Rights.
And when my Private Members Bill on Genocide Determination, successful in last week’s ballot, comes forward, I hope that the Government will seize the opportunity to demonstrate that it means what it says when in the words of the Gracious Address it will take measures which contribute to the UK’s “strength on the world stage.”
