By Mark Curtis
February 13, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" - British
foreign secretary Dominic Raab recently
described the “rule of international law” as one
of the “guiding lights” of UK foreign policy. By
contrast, the government regularly chides states it
opposes, such as Russia or Iran, as violators of
international law. These governments are often
consequently termed “rogue states” in the mainstream
media, the supposed antithesis of how “we” operate.
The following list of 17 policies may not be
exhaustive, but it suggests that the term “rogue
state” is not sensationalist or misplaced when it
comes to describing Britain’s own foreign and
“security” policies.
These serial violations suggest that
parliamentary and public oversight over executive
policy-making in the UK is not fit for purpose and
that new mechanisms are needed to restrain the
excesses of the British state.
The Royal Air Force’s drone war
Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) operates a drone
programme in support of the US involving a fleet of
British
“Reaper” drones operating since 2007. They have
been used by the UK to strike targets in
Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Four
RAF bases in the UK support the US drone war.
The joint UK and US spy base at Menwith Hill in
Yorkshire, northern England,
facilitates US drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan
and Somalia. US drone strikes, involving an
assassination programme begun by president Barack
Obama, are widely regarded as
illegal under international law, breaching
fundamental human rights. Up to 1,700 civilian
adults and children have been
killed in so-called “targeted killings”.
Amnesty International
notes that British backing is “absolutely
crucial to the US lethal drones programme, providing
support for various US surveillance programmes,
vital intelligence exchanges and in some cases
direct involvement from UK personnel in identifying
and tracking targets for US lethal operations,
including drone strikes that may have been
unlawful”.
Chagos Islands
Britain has violated international law in the
case of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean since
it expelled the inhabitants in the 1960s to make way
for a US military base on Diego Garcia, the largest
island.
Harold Wilson’s Labour government separated the
islands from then British colony Mauritius in 1965
in
breach of a UN resolution banning the breakup of
colonies before independence. London then formed a
new colonial entity, the British Indian Ocean
Territory, which is now an Overseas Territory.
In 2015, a UN Tribunal ruled that the UK’s
proposed “marine protected area” around the islands
— shown by Wikileaks publications to be a
ruse to keep the islanders from returning — was
unlawful since it undermined the rights of
Mauritius.
Then in February 2019, the International Court of
Justice (ICJ)
ruled in an advisory opinion that Britain must
end its administration of the Chagos islands “as
rapidly as possible”. The UN General Assembly
adopted a resolution in May 2019 welcoming the
ICJ ruling and “demanding that the United Kingdom
unconditionally withdraw its colonial administration
from the area within six months”. The UK government
has
rejected the calls.
Defying the UN over the Falklands
The UN’s 24-country Special Committee on
Decolonisation — its principal body addressing
issues concerning decolonisation — has repeatedly
called on the UK government to negotiate a
resolution to the dispute over the status of the
Falklands. In its latest call, in June 2019, the
committee
approved a draft resolution “reiterating that
the only way to end the special and particular
colonial situation of the Falkland Islands
(Malvinas) is through a peaceful and negotiated
settlement of the sovereignty dispute between
Argentina and the United Kingdom”.
The British government consistently rejects these
demands. Last year, it
stated:
“The Decolonisation Committee no longer has a
relevant role to play with respect to British
Overseas Territories. They all have a large measure
of self government, have chosen to retain their
links with the UK, and therefore should have been
delisted a long time ago.”
In 2016, the UN Commission on the Limits of the
Continental Shelf issued a
report finding that the Falkland Islands are
located in Argentina’s territorial waters.
Israel and settlement goods
Although Britain regularly condemns Israeli
settlements in the occupied territories as illegal,
in line with international law, it
permits trade in goods produced on those
settlements. It also does not
keep a record of imports that come from the
settlements — which include wine, olive oil and
dates — into the UK.