Rights Groups Slams Britain’s Arms Sales to Saudis over Yemen
Local Editor
A coalition of human rights groups on Wednesday criticized Britain for weapons transfers to Saudi Arabia, saying arms sales to Riyadh would violate a global treaty regulating trade in munitions.
Control Arms - a cluster of rights groups such as Amnesty International, Oxfam and Transparency International that focuses on arms control - said it sought an expert legal opinion from Philippe Sands, an attorney at the law firm Matrix Chambers and professor at University College in London.
Sands’ found that "available evidence and information provides prima facie evidence that the Saudi-led coalition has engaged in attacks directed against the civilian population" in the war on Yemen.
Nearly 6,000 people, almost half of them civilians, have been killed since Saudi-led air strikes began in March.
Sands’ legal opinion also found that current and future arms transfers to Saudi Arabia covered by the Arms Trade Treaty would violate the pact, which calls on states not to authorize the sale of a wide range of weapons if there are grounds to suspect they could be deployed against civilians.
The Arms Trade Treaty entered in force a year ago this month. Britain was one of the countries that fought the hardest for its adoption and ultimate entry into force.
"If the British continue to send arms to Saudi Arabia in the current context, they will continue to knowingly violate the same treaty that they helped to champion," Control Arms said.
In response, a British government spokesperson disputed that assessment, saying in a statement that London was "not in breach" of the treaty.
The Control Arms statement also cited Saudi arms trade with Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic.
The Control Arms statement focused exclusively on European nations and did not mention the United States, which is a leading arms supplier to the Saudis but is not a party to the Arms Trade Treaty. It has signed but not ratified it.
