In the past year, Saferworld’s arms control work has focused on increasing pressure on states to stop selling arms that are at risk of being used in the conflict in Yemen. We have played a leadership role among NGOs at the UK, EU and international levels to influence messaging and advocate for changes in arms export policies. At the EU, we organised a number of events addressing the crisis in Yemen, in combination with feeding into an ongoing review of the EU arms transfer control system. This included an EU-wide conference of NGOs and member state officials, and a series of events in Berlin in recognition of the role Germany is now playing on the export control issue.

We have also supported elected representatives in the UK and European parliaments to push for greater restraint in arms exports, and to influence their parliaments’ approach towards peace talks and resolutions on Yemen. This has contributed to a number of European states stopping or restricting arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

We worked with national authorities in Sierra Leone to review the country’s arms transfer control legislation, systems, processes and mechanisms, and to identify the necessary changes to boost their compliance with the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). We also looked at how the government cooperates with other countries on arms controls. We published a national action plan which sets out the objectives and activities required to get Sierra Leone to a position of full ATT compliance.