France, UAE; culprits in war crimes in Yemen
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NGOs are calling on France to withdraw from military cooperation with the UAE due to human rights violations in Yemen.
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French President Emmanuel Macron and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed
NGOs have called on France to rethink its relations with the UAE, which utilizes French weapons to commit international human rights violations in Yemen.
In a report titled "Arms sales: France and the United Arab Emirates, partners in the crimes committed in Yemen?", numerous organizations list how France failed to respect its human rights commitments according to the UN Arms Trade Treaty which "regulates the international trade in conventional arms."
The report details that the UAE is a strategic ally of France and describes the former as a "repressive dictatorship", where all dissenting voices risk imprisonment or torture, recalling the unjust sentences issued against 69 human rights activists in 2013 after an unfair trial.
UAE authorities were said to bear "direct and indirect responsibility" in some of the most serious violations on Yemeni soil.
According to a study filed to Parliament on arms exports, France was the third-largest exporter of military equipment in the world in 2020, with orders totaling 4.9 billion euros.
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Victims of the Saudi-led war on Yemen.
French arms to Saudi Arabia, the UAE used in Yemen
In early December, the investigative French website Disclose revealed that France delivered tens of thousands of arms to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar during President Francois Hollande's reign in 2016, despite knowing that they would be used in the war on Yemen.
The website quoted "secret defense documents" that "since 2016, France has allowed the delivery of about 150,000 shells" to its two Gulf allies.
