Launching the new Arms Trade Litigation Monitor website

On 19 April 2023, in collaboration with the Emergent Justice Collective and the International Commission of Jurists, we launched the Arms Trade Litigation Monitor – a website which tracks and documents legal proceedings that seek accountability for arms transfers linked with armed conflict and humanitarian crisis globally. 
 
Since the Saudi Arabia- and United Arab Emirates-led coalition began its armed intervention in Yemen in early 2015, it has been widely condemned for serious and repeated violations of international law, including suspected war crimes, committed using military equipment supplied by many of the world’s major arms manufacturers. 
 
In response, lawyers, non-governmental organisations and activists in at least nine countries have launched a series of legal challenges to stop governments from arming the Yemen war. Almost all of the countries being challenged are members of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which legally requires them to avoid transferring arms that may be used for illegal purposes.

“The war in Yemen revealed a glaring weakness in the international arms trade – the multiple states that were clearly breaking their own rules were doing so with impunity. But this then led to organisations and lawyers stepping in to attempt to provide legal accountability, taking governments to court across a wide range of jurisdictions. The Arms Trade Litigation Monitor captures all this work. It provides a one-stop shop for information-sharing and learning and can help develop accountability into the future of international arms trade. Not just for the people of Yemen but for anywhere that governments choose to ignore their obligations.” – Roy Isbister, Saferworld's Arms Unit Team Leader

Currently the Arms Trade Litigation Monitor covers 19 different legal cases in nine countries including multiple European countries, as well as South Africa, Canada and the USA, all filed between 2016 and 2022. The majority of these cases concern international arms transfers linked to the armed conflict and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, but there are also challenges related to other countries suspected of having broken international law, like Egypt. By collecting information from different cases and jurisdictions, this website will raise awareness of the impact and challenges of legal efforts to achieve accountability for international arms transfers.

You can visit the Arms Trade Litigation Monitor here. 
 
Read our briefing on ‘Domestic accountability for international arms transfers: Law, policy and practice’. 
 
Read more about our work on effective arms control.