Campaigners outside the Court of Appeal
Our friends at Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) have taken the British Government to court over sales of arms to Saudi Arabia - arms used in the devastating civil war in Yemen. On Thursday, the court of appeal ruled that the sale of these arms was unlawful, and immediately suspended all licenses. CAAT had this to say on the ruling:
“The court found that the government had failed to properly assess whether there have been breaches of International Humanitarian Law. This historic judgement means that the government must now stop issuing new arms exports licences and suspend existing licences to export arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen, and retake all decisions in accordance with the law.
These sales should never have been licensed in the first place. Even as schools, hospitals, weddings, and funerals have been bombed, the government has licensed the sale of billions of pounds of weapons for use in the conflict.
We have now shown that these arms sales were not just immoral, but also unlawful. But even now the government is likely to resist. Every step of the way it has done all it can to keep the weapons flowing”
This is a huge victory for the peace movement, but plans are already being made to try and overturn the ruling. CAAT are urging all supporters to contact their MPs to ensure this doesn’t happen. You can find out more information here.
