UK Atrocity Prevention Working Group Statement on the Integrated Review

On 16 March the outcomes of the Integrated Review of Defence, Development and Diplomacy were published, laying out a new vision for UK international policy. Members of the UK Atrocity Prevention Working Group warmly welcome the Government’s commitment to make atrocity prevention a priority in its new strategic framework of international policy. We look forward to working with Her Majesty’s Government as this new thinking is set out and embedded across all departments. We hope the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Cabinet Office will take this opportunity to develop a clear-eyed strategy on how the UK’s systems and capabilities will bring clarity and coherence to the prevention and prediction of, preparedness for, and responses to genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and war crimes.

We welcome the new approach to conflict, which seems to borrow from the principles of atrocity prevention, recognising grievances and political marginalisation as drivers of modern mass violence and understanding the need to prioritise prevention. In August, members of the UK Atrocity Prevention Working Group published its public submission to the Prime Minister’s Integrated Review and argued that the prevailing approach to conflict prevention was too narrow and that ‘mass atrocities are commonly grounded in a long history of grievances and discrimination’ but that these propellants of instability and inequality are commonly missing from UK understandings of and approaches to conflict.

We look forward to learning more about how the new approach to conflict and commitment to place greater emphasis on atrocity prevention will be built out.