Earlier this week, the government announced a new sanctions regime which will provide the UK with powers to stop individuals and groups involved in human rights abuses from entering Britain, or keeping their money in British banks. This marks the first time Britain has established its own independent mechanism focused exclusively on tackling human rights abuses.
The first wave of sanctions target two high-ranking Myanmar military generals involved in violence committed against the Rohingya people and 20 Saudi nationals involved in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.
The Foreign Secretary billed the announcement as ‘Global Britain’s commitment to acting as a force for good in the world.’ The government wants to be seen as a champion and defender of international rules and human rights. But one day later, they announced the resumption of arm sales to Saudi Arabia, who are leading a military campaign in Yemen since 2015 that has been linked to thousands of civilian deaths in the conflict in Yemen.
In a statement to Parliament, the government said that sales would restart after an official review concluded that there had been only “isolated incidents” of airstrikes in Yemen that breached international humanitarian law.
But the statistics from the conflict suggest these incidents are anything but isolated. According to UN figures, the Saudi and Emirati-led coalition was responsible for killing and injuring at least 3,481 children from 2015 to 2019. And in the first five months of this year along, the Civilian Impact Monitoring Project has recorded 95 incidents where airstrikes in Yemen damaged homes, farms or schools.
With coronavirus cases surging across Yemen, the UK and the international community must focus their efforts to deliver vital humanitarian assistance to Yemeni children and their families. And they must continue to push for peace.
The UK government recently pledged £160 million to help fight the COVID-19 in Yemen and to provide families with food, clean water and medical care. The UK is also continuing to lead diplomatic efforts to help deliver a political resolution to the conflict, including the Foreign Secretary who has joined forces with his Swedish and German counterparts to call for a nationwide ceasefire and a political settlement. These are all welcome efforts driven by the UK government, and it is vital that they continue.
However, the recent decision to resume arm sales to Saudi Arabia undermines the government’s important work on Yemen. It also sends a signal to perpetrators of violations against children in other conflicts that, as long as you are a powerful ally, you can get away with breaking the law. Another recent example of this is when the UN Secretary-General this year removed the Saudi-led coalition from his annual report on children and armed conflict. He delisted the Saudi-led coalition from the report’s annex despite the 222 UN-verified instances where children were killed or injured last year by the coalition.
The UK has the diplomatic clout, military strength and development expertise to deliver on its Global Britain ambition of being a force for good. They can start implementing this vision by throwing their full weight behind bringing peace and protection to Yemen’s children.
