Rejected petition Call to stop the war in Yemen: end arms sales to Saudi Arabia
Yemen is currently on the edge of extinction, facing war, a Covid-19 pandemic, and a cholera pandemic. Despite the Court of Appeal in 2019 declaring weapon sales to Saudi Arabia as unlawful, the UK has continued to sell weapons, further intensifying the conflict. A report in the Independent in December 2019 found UK weapon sales to the Saudi-led coalition are up 50%. We ask the Welsh Government to call for an end to the conflict and the sale of weapons to the Saudi-led coalition.
More details
Report by the Independent, 'UK arms sales to Saudi-led coalition up by almost 50 per cent, despite arms trade treaty', 24 December 2019.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-49680566
The role of the Welsh Government in arms fairs has already been questioned. We believe that if Welsh Government did want to show a stance against arms dealing to countries with awful human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia, then they should be on record condemning the UK's supply of weapons to Saudi Arabia, and call for an end to the Yemen conflict.
https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/yemen-crisis
Yemen is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with more than 24 million people – some 80 per cent of the population – in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 12 million children.
Why was this petition rejected?
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