Embrace is calling upon our supporters to write to their MP and urge them to vote against the controversial Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill.

Please support our campaign by writing to your MP. If you’d like to use a template letter you can download one using the button below.

WHY IS THE BILL SO CONTROVERSIAL?

For some time the government has been promising to introduce a Bill that would prohibit public bodies, local authorities in particular, from taking ethically based procurement decisions that result in a course of action different from those supported or proposed by the government. The Bill is controversial and has taken so long to be introduced for good reasons.  

The Bill will be voted on in the House of Commons next week. The Bill breaks with precedent in singling out Israel and the Occupied Territories on the face of the Bill, which it lumps together as through one entity. No other state is mentioned. If enacted the Bill will have a chilling effect on any action, or even speech, advocating, for example, in favour of goods from the Occupied Territories, or investments benefiting the Occupation, being boycotted or de-listed. This is central, indeed, to the government’s intention.

FIND OUT MORE

You can read an excellent article published by our friends at the Balfour Project, written by former MP Richard Bowden explaining why this Bill is pernicious, and would result, among other things, in the UK reneging on its own international commitment to uphold international law and to protect against abuses of human rights, including laws  to which it is a signatory:  https://balfourproject.org/governments-new-bill-drives-coach-and-horses-through-the-uks-claim-to-uphold-human-rights-and-international-law/

If you have written to your MP, we’d love to know. You can log that you have responded in the form below. Thank you.