Important #OOBill message: looks like celebrations of a government concession on crimes within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court are premature. ⁦The excellent @BinghamCentre⁩ has been looking at the small print. /1 https://binghamcentre.biicl.org/publications/overseas-operations-service-personnel-and-veterans-bill-consideration-of-lords-amendments-a-rule-of-law-analysis

Here’s the nub of what they say ... /2

... pieced together from the almost unreadable Govt amendments released this morning https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-01/0285/amend/overseasop_day_ccla_0420.pdf /3

The omission of war crimes is not just a detail - it rips the heart out of the Robertson amendment that was so convincingly adopted https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Lords/Division/2498 in @UKHouseofLords /4

The govt amendment covers only genocide, torture and crimes against humanity. Even the harshest critics of our military would hesitate before suggesting that they are guilty of genocide, or crimes against humanity. And torture on overseas ops is just one type of war crime. /5

War crimes EXCLUDED from the Govt concession include wilful killing, inhuman treatment, causing great suffering, destruction and taking of property, unlawful confinement, attacking civilians… and many others https://www.icc-cpi.int/resourcelibrary/official-journal/elements-of-crimes.aspx /6

If the Bill goes no further than the concession, British service personnel are at risk of being hauled before the ICC for any of these offences - destroying the point of the Robertson amendment - because the presumption against prosecution after five years will remain. /7

And the only exceptions to the presumption will be sexual offences (as in the original Bill) and some serious but little-charged add-ons: genocide, crimes against humanity and torture. /8

I hope Commons lawyers like @neill_bob @joannaccherry and @HarrietHarman are alert to this today, and that @LibDemLords, @LabourLordsUK and the military, legal and diplomatic cross-benchers who supported the Robertson amendment will have it in mind when the Bill returns to us. /9