Professor Anna Stavrianakis outlines the complicity of UK arms manufacturers and Westminster government in breach of international law on sale of arms to regimes recognised by the same government as breaking human rights law. And then Yasmin Luqman, a British Yemeni activist, responds. 

6.00pm – 7.45pm Friday 2 October 

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Join Campaign Against Arms Trade and Stop The War in exploring options for campaigning against corporate crimes – part of Edinburgh World Justice Festival 2020.

Anna is Professor of International Relations at University of Sussex. Her first book, Taking Aim at the Arms Trade – NGOs, Global Civil Society and the World Military Order (Zed Books 2010), analysed the way that NGOs such as Amnesty International, Oxfam, Saferworld & Campaign Against Arms Trade work for tighter controls on the arms trade.

Anna has written a series of articles about UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the war in Yemen; and the UN Arms Trade Treaty, which sets common international standards for the regulation of arms transfers. 

Yasmin is a British Yemeni activist. Her MSc in International Relations at the University of Edinburgh focussed on challenges faced by female activists, journalists, and political leaders in Yemen in the Arab Spring, through to the current civil war and humanitarian crisis. 

Yasmin has researched the roles of women in conflicts and occupation, e.g. Palestinian women in resistance to Israeli occupation and Gulf women’s activism. She trained in peacemaking. conflict resolution & gender inclusion in Beyond Borders Women in Conflict programme. 

Draft Timetable:  [We’ll send online link 2 days + 2 hours before event]

• 6.00pm “Doors Open” – our meeting etiquette 
• 6.10pm Welcome, Emma Cockburn, CAAT Scotland Coordinator
• 6.15pm Anna Stavrianakis on Arms Manufacturers: Export Death
• 6.30pm Response from Yasmin Luqman – British Yemeni activist
• 6.35pm Comfort Break then Q&A chaired by Kate Nevens
• 6.50pm Breakout Room Conversations
• 7.25pm Return to Plenary to share people’s priorities
• 7.35pm Wrap up and Close at 7.45pm

Background material:

‘A shameful relationship’: UK Complicity in Saudi State Violence, CAAT, 2016 ‘Yemen in Crisis‘, very helpful book by Helen Lackner, July 2017BAE Systems accused of being party to alleged war crimes, Dec 2019‘Day of Judgement’ US and European arms used to attack Yemeni civilians 2018War Crime Risk Grows for U.S. Over Saudi Strikes in Yemen, NYT Sept 2020UK broke inspection rules at Scottish bomb factory supplying Saudi June 2020US podcast on America’s whitewashing role in Yemen, Nov 2017′Yemen crisis won’t be solved by UK arms exports halt‘, Jeremy Hunt MP, 2019