![]() However, contrary to prevailing UK policy, mass atrocities are often committed outside of conflict – even in so-called peacetime. Where atrocity crimes do take place during war, their deliberate perpetration is either part of the political strategy of a party to the conflict, such as the targeting of civilians by Muammar Qadhafi in Libya, or they are committed under the cover of a wider conflict – for example, the crimes of the Islamic State against the Yazidis in Syria, or the Nazi genocide against Europe’s Jews during the Second World War. Some atrocities occur in the context of armed conflict, but many do not. However, the commitment falls within the government’s new approach to conflict and thus risks replicating the same assumptions that undermined UK contributions to the prevention of atrocities in Syria or Myanmar, and the same practical policy gaps that meant UK atrocity prevention so often fell between the cracks of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DfID). For those pushing for strategic emphasis on UK prevention of genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and war crimes, this is welcome news. ![]() The new strategic framework laid out in the Integrated Review commits the UK government to placing greater emphasis on atrocity prevention.
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