1Introduction
Our inquiry
1.The Committees on Arms Export Controls are a concurrent meeting of four select committees of the House of Commons—Business, Innovation and Skills; Defence; Foreign Affairs; and International Development—working together to examine the Government’s expenditure, administration and policy on strategic exports, that is, the licensing of arms exports and other controlled goods. The four committees have been cooperating since 1999 as each has an interest in defence exports.
2.Following its re-formation in February 2016, the Committees decided to conduct an inquiry into the use of UK-manufactured arms by the Saudi Arabian-led coalition in the conflict in Yemen. This was in response to considerable public concern that such arms were being used in contravention of international law and the UK’s international, European and domestic obligations. The Committees called for written evidence, looking at the following issues:
- What are the UK’s strategic interests in the Arabian Peninsula and in the wider Gulf region? To what extent and how are those strategic interests being advanced?
- What significance does the region play in terms of the UK defence and security industry?
- Are UK-manufactured arms being used by the Royal Saudi Armed Forces in the conflict in Yemen?
- Have there been any infringements of the UK Government’s criteria for the granting of arms export licences with regard to the use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen? If so, what should be done as a consequence?
- Should DFID’s formal involvement in granting arms export licences be extended to consider the impact on the sustainable development of both the recipient country and countries where British arms may ultimately be used?
3.The Committees heard evidence from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Saferworld and Oxfam on the crisis in Yemen and the evidence of violations of IHL; from Professor Philippe Sands QC on the findings of his and others’ legal opinion on the lawfulness of UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia in the context of the conflict in Yemen; from ADS, the leading trade body for the aerospace, defence and security industries; from leading experts on our relationship with the Gulf and our arms export policies; and from Ministers from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Development. We are grateful to all of those who gave oral and written evidence.
4.Because of a divergence of view between the committees that constitute the Committees on Arms Export Controls, it has not proved possible to agree a common text. We are therefore publishing this report as an expression of opinion by the Foreign Affairs Committee. References in this report to oral or written evidence are to evidence taken by the Committees on Arms Export Controls, which consisted of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, the Defence Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the International Development Committee.
Background
5.After the Arab Spring protests in Yemen in 2011, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreed a transition agreement to transfer power from President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had been in power since 1978, to his deputy Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The change in government did not translate into a change in governance and many economic and social problems persisted. As Saferworld reported, “deals made in the post-Saleh transition ultimately entrenched the same kleptocratic elite whose behaviour was driving Yemen into the ground—and Saleh was allowed to remain in Yemen with impunity to wreck further havoc.”1 The transition unravelled in the autumn of 2014 when the Houthi armed group, with the support of forces loyal to former president Saleh, seized the capital Sana’a and then moved south towards Aden in March 2015, forcing President Hadi into exile in Saudi Arabia. Responding to a request from Hadi, Saudi Arabia formed a 10-member coalition including Jordan, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, and Kuwait, amongst other countries to intervene in Yemen to halt the advance of the Houthis and reinstate the legitimate government. Since 26 March 2015, Saudi Arabia has led the military coalition in an armed conflict in Yemen.
UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia
6.The UK is a major arms supplier to Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Gulf. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait have been identified as “priority markets”2 for defence exports with the UK Trade and Investment’s Defence and Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) and in 2015 over 30 per cent of all UK defence exports were licensed to Saudi Arabia. From April to December 2015, these licences included exports exceeding the value of £1.7 billion for combat aircraft and over £1 billion for air-delivered bombs. The aerospace industry in the UK is the second largest in the world and the largest in Europe. It employs nearly a quarter of a million skilled and technical workers across the UK with very significant numbers in the North and Midlands. The Foreign Secretary confirmed at the very start of the conflict that the Saudi Royal Air Force were using UK-manufactured arms in Yemen.3
Allegations of serious violations of International Humanitarian Law
7.All sides of the conflict are accused of serious violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) by the United Nations, other international organisations and non-governmental organisations. These organisations have documented a high number of alleged breaches of IHL by the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis. Saudi Arabia has established a Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT), and are investigating allegations of violations of IHL. As of August 2016, the JIAT had reported on nine incidents.
Compliance with arms trade law
8.UK arms exports are bound by the obligations within the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the EU Common Position on Arms Exports and the Consolidated EU and UK arms licensing criteria. Articles 6(3) and 7 of the Arms Trade Treaty, Criteria 2 and 6 of the EU Common Position and Criterion 2(c) all refer to respect of the recipient country for international law and require that export licences are not granted where there is a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of IHL.
1 Saferworld, A new war on terror or a new search for peace? Learning the lessons of Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen, January 2016 briefing, p 5
2 HL WA UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation, 10 July 2014 c WA79–82
3 “UK ‘will support Saudi-led assault on Yemeni rebels - but not engaging in combat’”, The Telegraph, 27 March 2015
© Parliamentary copyright 2015
15 September 2016