When investigations exist to shield institutions rather than scrutinise them, impunity becomes policy

Drawing on Iraqi police affidavits, court records, death certificates and eyewitness testimony, this report documents the killing of Mohammed Midel and his wife Kfaya Majid by British forces during a night raid in Basra in April 2007, the serious wounding of Saad Quasim, and the complete absence of any meaningful investigation or accountability despite extensive contemporaneous evidence.

An eight-year-old Iraqi girl was killed by a British soldier’s gunfire in Basra in 2003, a death acknowledged at the time through visits, payments and correspondence but never formally investigated, prosecuted or compensated by the UK state.

The resignation of Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi over the leaked Sde Teiman rape video exposes not just a personal lapse in judgement but a deeper rot within Israel’s military justice system, where political interference, impunity, and institutional secrecy have corroded accountability for war crimes.

The acquittal of “Soldier F” exposes Britain’s enduring failure to deliver justice for Bloody Sunday and reveals a wider pattern of institutional denial, delay, and impunity in cases of military wrongdoing.

Thirteen years after the murder of Agnes Wanjiru, her family’s renewed fight for justice exposes not only the slow grind of extradition but also a deeper pattern of exploitation and impunity surrounding Britain’s military presence in Kenya.

In a BBC News interview, AOAV’s Executive Director Iain Overton detailed that of 52 Israeli military investigations into alleged war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank since October 2023, almost all ended without accountability, highlighting deep flaws in Israel’s system of self-investigation.

Action on Armed Violence’s investigation that 88% of Israeli military probes into alleged Gaza war crimes remain unresolved gained global media attention.

An AOAV investigation into 52 publicly acknowledged Israeli military probes since October 2023 reveals a systemic pattern of impunity, with 88% of cases either unresolved or closed without wrongdoing and only one resulting in a prison sentence despite more than 1,300 reported civilian deaths.

A series of reports by Action on Armed Violence reveals that Britain’s military justice system is mired in secrecy, impunity, and institutional evasion, with elite units shielded from scrutiny, whistleblowers silenced, and the Ministry of Defence systematically resisting accountability.

This report reveals systemic failings in the British military’s response to alleged war crimes by UK Special Forces in Afghanistan, marked by cover-ups, collapsed investigations, and command-level obstruction, demanding urgent legal and institutional reform.

The High Court’s ruling that Britain’s sale of F-35 parts to Israel is lawful may satisfy legal procedure, but it exposes a deeper moral collapse. One where judicial restraint enables political cowardice, and where Britain’s arms trade proceeds in full knowledge of the civilian blood it may help to spill.