We’ve seen posts on Instagram and Twitter claiming that the Genocide Act of 1969 has just been repealed.
This is not the case. The Genocide Act was repealed in 2001, after the passage of the International Criminal Court Act and the equivalent act in Scotland.
The International Criminal Court Act 2001 makes genocide illegal, as well as war crimes and “crimes against humanity”.
People claiming that the Genocide Act has recently been repealed may have made this mistake by misunderstanding the green bar at the top of the webpage of the old legislation, a screenshot of which appears in some of the posts.
This bar says: “Genocide Act 1969 (repealed) is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 07 May 2021. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date.”
That doesn’t mean the legislation was changed on the 7 May, or 8 May as the Instagram post claims. It means all changes made up until 7 May are reflected on that webpage. This is the last time the online legislation database, which is run by the National Archives, could guarantee that the law was in force exactly as it appears on the site.
We’ve seen confusion over when legislation was last changed before.