LCIL Friday Lecture: 'The UK and Allegations of War Crimes in the Occupation of Iraq: A Failure of Accountability?'

Andrew Williams is a professor at the University of Warwick where he teaches both human rights law and creative writing. He founded, and is co-director of, the Centre for Human Rights in Practice based in Warwick Law School. His book A Very British Killing: the Death of Baha Mousa won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2013. He is now editor-in-chief of the on line magazine Lacuna which publishes articles on issues of human rights and injustice in the UK and around the world.

Lecture summary: Since 2003 there has been sustained but haphazard legal examination of the conduct of British forces during the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Significant numbers of allegations of unlawful killing and abuse have been raised and are the subject of various government instituted processes of investigation. However, despite there being credible evidence of numerous breaches of international humanitarian law and human rights applicable standards, and despite these governmental procedures, there has been no proper or effective attempt by the UK to fulfil its obligations to discover the truth of these allegations, to consider whether systemic abuses occurred, or to make accountable those who have perpetrated proven violations. After briefly charting this complex terrain, I argue first that this confluence of failures renders the UK in direct contravention of international and domestic legal commitments, and second that unless the nettle of a full and open public inquiry is grasped, founded on well-established international principles, there will be no resolution of the ‘Iraq question’ which has festered for over a decade. The prospect is real therefore of a double injustice being perpetrated.

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Numbers are limited so please arrive early to avoid disappointment. Please note the lecture programme is subject to revision without notice.