The British Government is facing new calls to recognise that ISIS’s attacks on Christians, Yazidis and others should be declared genocide. A cross-party group of peers was expected to move an amendment this week that could oblige the Government to fulfil its obligations as a signatory to the 1948 Genocide Convention. The Government was whipping against the amendment which, if passed by the Lords, will be debated by MPs. If the amendment goes through, a judge – possibly from the High Court or Supreme Court – will examine the evidence and decide whether ISIS’s actions count as genocide. That would force the Government to take steps to protect the victims of ISIS and seek to bring the perpetrators to justice. The Government has so far refused to make a declaration of genocide, saying that such decisions are a matter for the judicial system. In a letter to peers asking them to support the amendment, Baroness Cox, one of the group, said: “It is noteworthy that, in the past two years, two serving foreign secretaries have lamented the failure of the international community to decry the genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda quickly enough, despite overwhelming and compelling evidence. We have an opportunity to prevent history from repeating itself.” The peers moving the amendment to the Immigration Bill include Baroness Kennedy (Labour), Lord Forsyth (Conservative) and Baroness Nicholson (Lib Dem). Their efforts come after the US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he considered ISIS to be “responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yazidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims”. Mr Kerry had previously been reluctant to use the term. The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, the United States Foreign Affairs Committee, and the European Parliament have all said that ISIS is committing genocide. A recent report from the Knights of Columbus, “Genocide Against Christians in the Middle East”, listed 1,131 Iraqi Christians killed between 2003 and 2014, and documented hundreds of attacks on Christians and churches. One of those leading the Lords campaign, the Catholic crossbench peer Lord Alton, told the Catholic Herald that there was a “catch-22 situation” in which the Government says declarations of genocide are a matter for the judicial system, but the judicial system is not obliged to examine the evidence. The amendment, if it passes the Lords and the Commons, could lead to action. Lord Alton said that although Britain was one of over 140 signatories to the 1948 Genocide Convention, “as things stand, it doesn’t seem to be worth the paper on which it’s written”. If the judicial system does make a declaration of genocide, Lord Alton said, the definition “obliges us to both punish those who are responsible for genocide and to protect the people who are the victims”. This could lead to a prioritising of asylum for victims of genocide: notably Christians and Yazidis, but also possibly others such as Mandaeans, Turkmen, and some Shia Muslims.