Arms trade

Today a Belgian civil court will hear the arguments by a coalition of NGOs to end the export of military components to the Turkish air force. Earlier this year Vredesactie and CNAPD, supported by Amnesty International Belgium, sued the Flemish government for its involvement in the production of the Turkish A400M military transport planes. Turkey uses these planes to fuel conflicts across the region and violate international arms embargoes.

The obligations of companies to implement human rights due diligence (HRdd) has reached the political agenda with the announcement of EU Commissioner Reynders to propose a binding EU framework, a range of national initiatives and the negotiation of a UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights. However, such human rights obligations by private actors are a horizontal application of obligations held by states. How are states performing their human rights due diligence and how accountable are they? Arms export licensing was originally driven by strategic concerns, but it is an important area where states have obliged themselves explicitly to conduct human rights due diligence. Common Position 2008/944/CFSP provides the framework in the EU.

On march 25th, the war in Yemen will be raging for five years. Today, we're launching an infographic showing the impact of the European arms trade on that war, and how we can strike back.

More than 50% of Belgian arms export has destination Saudi Arabia and is now blocked by the Belgian administrative court.