The overseas impunity bill December 14, 2020 British soldiers in Iraq. The government’s new bill could hamper efforts to prosecute serious crimes committed abroad. Photo: David Cheskin/PA Archive/PA Images When UK armed forces take part in military operations overseas, they are subject to criminal law, human rights law and international humanitarian law. This is only right—we expect and support our armed forces to uphold and respect the rule of law, and this does not change just because they are on overseas operations. The law protects aid workers, civilians and foreign military personnel. Sadly, we know from public inquiries and court cases that, while far from commonplace, human rights abuses and serious criminal acts can and do take place during overseas operations. For example, the Baha Mousa Inquiry in 2011 found that Mousa, an Iraqi hotel clerk who died in 2003 while in the custody of British soldiers, was the victim of an “appalling episode of gratuitous violence.” In 2017, the case of Alseran revealed the use of prohibited interrogation techniques, physical assaults and sexually humiliating treatment of detainees by British soldiers.