IBAHRI calls for urgent action as the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office closes its international humanitarian law unit
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) calls upon the government of the United Kingdom to reconsider its decision to close the unit within the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) that seeks to identify the risk of atrocity crimes.
On 23 April 2026, The Guardian newspaper reported that the FCDO had closed its international humanitarian law unit following budget cuts to conflict and atrocity prevention teams. This development came to light a few hours after the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on International Law, Justice and Accountability, supported by the IBAHRI, had concluded the first parliamentary oral session of the Standing Group on Atrocity Crimes. During the session, participating experts outlined the shortfalls of the UK government’s law and policy in this area and called for the expansion of the Foreign Office’s atrocity prevention team as part of the government’s stated commitment to international law.
The closure of the unit, which monitored early warning signs of atrocity crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes) around the world and warned of risks of atrocity crimes, such as the serious risk of genocide in Sudan, Gaza or in other parts of the world, reduces the FCDO’s capacity for international atrocity prevention and response.
Baroness Helena Kennedy of the Shaws LT KC, Director of the IBAHRI, chaired the first oral hearing of the Standing Group and was joined by members of the APPG, including Brendan O’Hara MP, Baroness Hodgson and Baroness D’Souza.
Baroness Kennedy commented: ‘With every testimony we heard from experts, it was crystal clear that the UK government fell short of its international law obligations in relation to atrocity prevention and responses. The United States used to do this work well. However, with the changes in 2025 and the policies of the new administration, and the dismantling of the atrocity prevention work, we cannot rely on the US anymore. The UK must step up, step up not only to ensure that its responses are in line with international law standards, but to lead the world in this work. The news that the UK, instead of boosting its mechanisms has started to close them down, is a tragedy that cannot be justified and must be challenged.’
Brendan O’Hara, Chair of the APPG and a member of the Advisory Board of the Standing Group, said at the time of the gathering: ‘During today’s session, experts provided the Standing Group with more detailed responses than we, as parliamentarians, have managed to get from the UK government through the questions that many of us continue to raise about the UK’s strategy on atrocity prevention and how it assesses its legal responsibilities under the Genocide Convention. What emerged very clearly from today’s hearing was that the UK’s approach to atrocity and genocide prevention is far behind what it should be – and is miles away from being a strategy which could be expected to prevent atrocities from occurring in the future.’
During the sessions, experts emphasised the need for greater preparedness and expertise in addressing atrocity crimes globally.
- Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, British barrister and former part-time judge, expressed his deep disappointment with the UK position on genocide determination and engagement with evidence. He criticised the UK government’s long-standing policy to leave the questions on genocide determination to the courts, while at the same time conducting a negative determination in one case − Gaza − when it suited the government.
- Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director, Human Rights Watch (HRW), discussed the intervention of HRW and Amnesty International in the Al Haq v Secretary of State for Business and Trade case – a judicial review challenging the government's refusal to suspend F-35 fighter jet component exports to Israel. She stressed that the UK government was willing to recognise that the duty to prevent in Article I of the Genocide Convention was to be triggered when there is a serious risk of genocide. However, the UK must clarify what it understands the serious risk threshold to require in practice, and what steps (positive and negative) follow once that threshold is met.
- Elisabeth Pramendorfer, Geneva Director , Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, raised the issue that the UK government’s inconsistent application and selective responses to crisis situations have undermined civilian protection, increased atrocity risk factors and reinforced double standards. She stressed that strengthening atrocity prevention requires consistently enforcing international law, and doing so everywhere without exceptions.
- Jeffrey Sizemore, Mary Wing-Ming Lee Senior Human Rights Research Fellow 2026, University of Queensland School of Political Science and International Studies, discussed the important work the US used to do in line with the Elie Wiesel Act, as well as the recent changes that have brought an end to this work. He called upon the UK to continue to expand on the atrocity prevention training efforts for all professional staff, including the Ministry of Defence, and has called on it to support and expand the increased atrocity risk analytical capacity in the FCDO, among others.
The IBAHRI is concerned by the decision of Sir Olly Robbins, the former Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to dismantle the atrocity prevention unit and hope that this decision will be altered by his successor.
In December 2025 and January 2026, Baroness Kennedy, Lord Alton of Liverpool and Dr Ewelina Ochab raised their concerns in meetings with ministers about the speculations about the significant changes within the FCDO and the predicted closure of the Atrocity Prevention Hub. They called upon the FCDO to expand the hub, rather than reduce it. Subsequently, the FCDO acted against this advice.
Dr Ochab, IBAHRI Senior Programme Lawyer and Co-Founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response, stated: ‘As we witness an ever-growing number of conflicts and situations of atrocity crimes globally, we must recognise that doing business as usual on atrocity prevention is not working and cannot be justified anymore. Recent years have seen important legislative and policy proposals that could have delivered a palpable change on the ground, however, successive governments have been looking away and ignoring the facts. And the facts are the UK needs a comprehensive atrocity prevention strategy; it needs resourced early warning mechanisms; it needs cross-department cooperation and responses; it needs strong laws to secure justice and accountability; and the list goes on. Closing the existing mechanisms, which were the tip of the iceberg of what is needed, will cause great damage to the work on preventing atrocity crimes that will be felt for decades to come.’
ENDS
Contact: IBAHRI@int-bar.org
Notes
- About the Standing Group:
On 14 July 2025 in the UK Houses of Parliament, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), together with the Accountability Unit and the Coalition for Genocide Response, launched a new initiative — the Standing Group on Atrocity Crimes (Standing Group). Comprising a group of leading international lawyers, cross-party parliamentarians and policy advisers, the Standing Group has been set up to convene an independent review of, and provide comprehensive advice on, the UK’s approach to atrocity prevention and response. The group is chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC, Director of the IBAHRI, and co-convened by Dr Ewelina Ochab, IBAHRI Senior Programme Lawyer. - The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), established in 1995 under Founding Honorary President Nelson Mandela, is an autonomous entity working to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law, and to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.
- Find the IBAHRI on social media here:
- The International Bar Association (IBA), the global voice of the legal profession, is the foremost organisation for international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. Established in 1947, shortly after the creation of the United Nations, with the aim of protecting and promoting the rule of law globally, the IBA was born out of the conviction that an organisation made up of the world's bar associations could contribute to global stability and peace through the administration of justice.
- Find the IBA on social media here:
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