Plaid MP: ‘ UK Government should be accountable to International Court of Justice’

Plaid’s Adam Price MP will tomorrow call on the UK Government to submit itself to the will of the International Court of Justice should the Iraq inquiry raise doubts as to the legality of the Iraq war.

Tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday), the House of Commons will debate the manner in which the Iraq inquiry should be carried out, and specifically whether the Inquiry should commit itself to an open and public investigation.

The International Court of Justice is the judicial arm of the United Nations. The Court’s principle role is to settle legal disputes between states submitted to it by them and to give advice on specific legal matters referred to it. Only states, not individuals, are eligible to appear before the Court.

Commenting in advance of the debate, Adam Price MP said:

“If the Government’s report raises doubts as to the legality of the Iraq war, then it is only right and fair that the Government should submit itself to the judicial scrutiny of the International Court of Justice.

“It should then fully accept its findings and it should remain the prerogative of the Court to issue a judgement.

“In the meantime, the Government should also consider splitting the initial inquiry in two now - one to look into why we went to war, and another to investigate actions during the war.

“Since the Government announced the Inquiry to be launched, it has already backtracked and is now unclear how the Inquiry is intended to be carried out. Even the Head of the Inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, is urging for open and public hearings.

“This has gone on for far too long, and with a closed investigation, it may well drag on again before we hear the truth. There are still unanswered questions and challenges to be accounted for.

“If the Government is serious about the findings of this Inquiry too, then it should willingly submit itself to the scrutiny of a higher Court. Tomorrow’s debate will be testament to how much the Government respects the investigation.

“Plaid Cymru has long argued that a full and transparent inquiry must have full access to all information and paper trails. Now the UK Government has to show that it is accountable to the electorate, but also accountable to the world community.”