WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and Rights Watch UK have all received permission to participate in a court case that challenges the United Kingdom's right to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia, HRW said in a press release.
"Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and RW UK have received permission to intervene in a court case challenging the United Kingdom’s continued sale of arms to Saudi Arabia," the release said.
The case brought by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) hopes to prove that the UK is breaking its own criteria for exporting weapons, because any arms sent to Saudi Arabia could be used to commit violations of humanitarian law in Yemen, the release noted.
Britain has licensed about $6.1 billion in U.S. dollars worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia since 2016, the release continued.
The High Court in London dismissed the case in 2017, but CAAT won the right to appeal and will be heard in an appeals court in April 2019, according to Human Rights Watch.
According to Yemen’s Health Ministry, more than 15,000 have died since the onset of the warfare. This is while various reports put the death toll far higher, saying a Saudi-enforced media blackout has prevented proper investigation into the number of fatalities.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has indicted his country is pushing for a resolution in the United Nations Security Council that could guarantee the end of the Saudi war in Yemen.
Hunt made a statement on Monday in which he said the Foreign Office (Britain’s foreign ministry) was in close consultation with the UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, about the situation in the war-torn country.
The statement did not mention what specific action the UK will take to help end the crisis in Yemen but reiterated that London will do its best to ensure that a ceasefire could be implemented if the two sides of the conflict agree to end hostilities.
"The action the UK takes forward at the UN Security Council will help towards that goal, ensuring that a full ceasefire, when it comes, is fully implemented,” said the statement, adding that the time was right for the Security Council to act to bolster the UN-led process in Yemen.