It’s time to crack down on exporting arms to those who do not respect human rights

On 16 December, the European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Raif Badawi, blogger and Saudi citizen -if that is the right term to give to someone who holds a Saudi passport.

His crime? Creating a website ‘Free Saudi Liberals’, criticizing senior religious figures and accusing the Saud Islamic University of becoming a den for terrorists. For these ‘crimes’ he has received a sentence of 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison. His conviction was upheld on appeal.

Sadly, Raif Badawi is but one of many. Waleed Abu al-Khair, a human rights lawyer, recently received a 15 year prison sentence for doing what you would fully expect a human rights lawyer to be doing with his time, defending human rights. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office have acknowledged that many human rights activists have been sentenced under the country’s new anti-terrorism laws.

Saudi anti-terrorism law

The recently enacted anti-terrorism law passed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) offers a very broad definition of terrorism. Terrorists include: atheists – that’s Richard Dawkins’ visa revoked; anyone who attends conferences, seminars and meetings that ‘sow discord’ – gosh, in Brussels you’d have to build a very big prison to get all these guys in; and, those who incite countries, committees, or international organizations antagonistic to – read ‘critical of’ - the Kingdom – so that would be a further 700-odd MEPs. This law could be described as somewhat repressive, or even Draconian.

Action post-Paris attacks

Following the Paris attacks, justice and home affairs ministers convened to crack down on terrorism; delegates called for urgent action to accelerate regulation to create a European PNR (passenger name records) system, restrict firearms in the EU and reinforce external border controls through Tuesday’s (15 December) package of proposals to secure Europe’s external borders. Everyone has been committed to taking "rapid and operational decisions and to put them into practice in a short timespan". But it is widely acknowledged that these actions alone are inadequate.

There is no single measure that will end terrorism. However, there are measures we can take more broadly to reduce instability, particularly in the Middle East. One of those measures is to implement the EU’s Common Position on Arms Exports and UN Arms Trade Treaty. This issue has been tackled by Bodil Valero MEP (Green Party) in her report to the European Parliament to be voted on today.

European Parliament votes on the export of arms

Green MEP, Bodil Valero, who has taken the lead on the European Parliament's report, said:

“Europe's security environment has changed drastically, with armed conflicts destabilising both its eastern and southern neighbourhoods. At the same time we have seen European arms ending up in the hands of repressive regimes, terrorists and criminals, fuelling the conflicts in those countries. This underlines why stricter risk assessment before granting arms export deals, as called for in the report, is so important. If we are concerned about security, human rights and international peace, we cannot afford to be soft on arms exports. To this end, the report criticizes France, the UK and Germany, Europe's three biggest arms exporters, for failing to meet their legal obligation to supply accurate and complete arms export data to the EU.”

The volume of exports from the EU based on licence value is huge, standing at nearly €37 billion, Saudi Arabia alone accounts for €3.85bn in export license value:

These figures can also be broken down by country:

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) have an excellent interactive tool where you can select a country and see the full value of export licences.

The Common Position on Arms Exports is legally binding and requires countries to evaluate eight criteria before agreeing to permit an export license to a company. These criteria include a requirement for countries to refuse licenses to countries that do not respect human rights and international humanitarian law, and a further requirement to refuse licences to countries where there is internal repression. Saudi Arabia and many others fail to meet these criteria - they are applied loosely by most countries and there are no penalties in the case of infringement. On internal repression, for example, the rule requires that a licence should be withheld if there is a ‘clear risk’. The report suggests that this should be independently verified by organizations such as the Council of Europe, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and human rights organizations in order to verify there is no risk.

Even in countries like Bahrain where a military crackdown has resulted in as many as 4000 political prisoners and where the European External Action Service (EEAS) has acknowledged the deteriorating human rights situation arms export licences continue to be issued. It beggars belief that any EU country can believe that some of these countries are not involved in internal repression. This is why the European Parliament want independent verification, a right to challenge a country’s decision to grant an export licence and mechanisms for sanctions for violation of the Common Position. The Parliament would also like the EU to take a precautionary approach, as is standard in similar areas such as money laundering. The Parliament suggest that the way to do this is to establish an independent European Arms Control Authority, under the auspices of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, a post currently held by Federica Mogherini.

Arms controls aren’t a panacea, but it is clear that the Middle East is awash with weapons, that these weapons are by accident or design ending up in the hands of our enemies and that if we want stability in the Middle East and security at home urgent action is needed! The report will be voted on this afternoon (17 December).

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