§ 2.38 p.m.
§ LORD BROCKWAYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what action has been taken at the United Nations to support the recommendation of the United Nations International Conference at Teheran that the Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of prisoners should be extended to those engaged in legalistically civil conflicts.]
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (LORD CHALFONT)My Lords, the United Nations Conference on Human Rights held in Teheran earlier this year proposed that the Secretary-General of the United Nations should be invited to study the application of international legal rules in all forms of armed conflict and the need for additional international conventions or possible revision of existing conventions. The United Kingdom delegation to the Conference voted for this particular resolution as a whole, but pointed out that difficulties would arise in trying to extend prisoner-of-war treatment to those who, in the words of the preambular paragraph of the resolution, struggle against minority, racist or colonial regimes. We shall make this point again in the United Nations General Assembly but we shall support the proposal that the Secretary-General should study the whole question. I trust that my noble friend will agree that we should now await the Secretary-General's report.
§ LORD BROCKWAYMy Lords, while greatly appreciating the reply of my noble friend, may I ask him two questions? The first is, whatever may be the nature of the conflict, does not the Geneva Convention lay down minimum conditions for humane treatment of prisoners? Secondly—and I find it rather difficult to express this—have we not now to adjust ourselves to a situation in world affairs where the deeper issues—democracy, racial equality, freedom of peoples—are no longer expressed in the conflict of Governments but are expressed in the conflict of peoples across the frontiers for those ideals; and in that new situation in the world have we not to look again at this definition of prisoners-of-war?
§ LORD CHALFONTMy Lords, I think certainly we have to look at this subject again, and the intention to do so is implicit in the Teheran resolution. The Secretary-General of the United Nations is about to look again at this problem. So far as the Geneva Convention is concerned, I think we can confidently expect that that will be covered in the Secretary-General's Report. The main difficulty here is in identifying the forms of armed action that might be protected under the terms of this resolution. I think noble Lords will agree that it would be no kind of contribution to the rule of law to turn every organised breach of law and order into a recognised movement protected by law. Of course, there would also be in some of the cases to which my noble friend has referred the very practical difficulty of enforcing any law of this kind, given that the people involved would most often be nationals of the very State to which they were opposed.