Stop Arming Saudi Arabia
What will it take to Stop Arming Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia is the UK's biggest arms customer. One of the world's most authoritarian regimes, its repression at home and aggression abroad is supported by UK arms sales.
Saudi Arabia has used UK weapons to help crush democracy protests in Bahrain; now UK-made warplanes are playing a central role in Saudi Arabia's attacks in Yemen.
Saudi-led attacks on Yemen
The Saudi-led attacks on Yemen have killed thousands and created a humanitarian disaster.
The UK government has continued to supply weapons to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen despite overwhelming evidence of repeated breaches of international humanitarian law.
The UK government admits that Saudi Arabia has used UK weapons, made by companies around the UK, in its attacks on Yemen.
This is in clear violation of UK's own guidelines on arms sales, and European and international law, and makes a mockery of
the government's claims to rigorously
control arms exports.
The UK should never have been arming repressive Saudi Arabia in the first place. Our military support for the Saudi regime makes us complicit in its wrongs. The government refuses to act, so we have to.
Legal action
CAAT is challenging the UK government's decision to continue to license the export of military equipment to Saudi Arabia. On 20 June 2019 the Court of Appeal ruled that UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen are unlawful.
As a result of this landmark decision, the government was ordered to retake its previous decisions to export arms to Saudi in accordance with the law, and to stop issuing new arms export licences to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt, for use in Yemen. Hundreds of millions of pounds of arms sales were put on hold.
The government refused to accept the Court of Appeal judgment and was granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. On 7 July 2020 the government announced it had completed the review ordered by the Court of Appeal, had determined that any violations of international law were "isolated incidents" and that it would resume the granting of new licences for arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition for use in Yemen.
CAAT is considering this new decision with its lawyers, and will be exploring all options available to challenge it. Read more about what the case means and view the legal documents.