Our current theme at Peace Hub is all about putting human rights before the profits of the arms trade. The UK government claims that it carefully screens applications to sell weapons around the world, to make sure that they won’t be used for repression, human rights abuses or targeting civilians.
Yet the UK’s biggest customer for arms over the past decade is one of the world’s most repressive regimes: Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has used UK-made weapons to:
- repress its own population;
- help crush democracy protests in Bahrain;
- attack Yemen, including bombing civilian areas.
Pop into Peace Hub to hear Salama’s story – a Yemeni man who lost his family in the bombing; and Loujain’s story – a Saudi women’s rights activist, currently in prison for campaigning against the regime.
It is unacceptable that the UK continues to support repression in Saudi Arabia by selling weapons. Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) have produced a template letter to send to your MP. You can pop into the Hub to sign a paper copy, or visit the CAAT website to send an email. The letter asks your MP to speak out this parliament against the UK’s arms sales to Saudi, and also to support Early Day Motion 124, which asks for greater parliamentary scrutiny over UK arms sales. You can use the template provided, or rewrite the letter in your own words.