Disrupting illegal sales of UK arms

by Global Legal Action Network

Disrupting illegal sales of UK arms

by Global Legal Action Network
Global Legal Action Network
Case Owner
GLAN pursues innovative legal actions across borders to challenge powerful actors involved in systemic human rights violations.
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Global Legal Action Network
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GLAN pursues innovative legal actions across borders to challenge powerful actors involved in systemic human rights violations.
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Latest: Nov. 9, 2023

Government on final warning to suspend weapons sales to Israel

Photo source: Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street. Licensed under the Open Government Licence.

The UK’s Department for Business and Trade still hasn’t complied with our request to halt wea…

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The UK is profiting from war

As the bombardment intensifies in Gaza, so do the flow of Western weapons to Israel.  UK arms sales reached a record high last year with £8.5 billion in export licenses.  

The UK have consistently approved sale of lethal weapons to the Israeli Defence Force and have promised major support for Israel’s decimation of Gaza in recent days.

Israel is unleashing the heaviest and most indiscriminate aerial bombardment Gaza has ever seen, killing civilians at a rate of hundreds per day. Israel has also ordered the forced displacement of over 1 million civilians from northern Gaza; the UN stated this transfer will have “devastating humanitarian consequences” and could amount to the crime against humanity of forcible transfer.

This needs to end.  

We are urgently raising funds to challenge the government decisions that allow these British arms to be sold to the Israeli Defence Force and other major war aggressors.

UK Government licensing laws allow British weapons to be sold to groups actively engaging in warfare.  These weapons are being sold to launch indiscriminate attacks on residential buildings, to bomb weddings and funerals and to violently oppress basic human rights. 

In our latest challenge against UK arms sales, we are calling on the government to halt all UK arms sales to Israel over illegal attacks on civilians, forced displacement, and policies in Palestine.

In the UK, all arms sales are made under licenses issued by the Secretary of State for International Trade who, according to the law, must not allow arms sales if there if there is a risk those weapons would be used to unlawfully harm civilians.  We have uncovered a catalogue of damning evidence of evidence proving British supplied weapons are being used to kill and harass civilians.   

We are working on a coordinated legal strategy challenging the UK through cases where arms have been sold to brutal militaries who flagrantly violate international law with impunity. We have already shown the court that British weapons are being used by Saudi Arabia to commit war crimes in Yemen. We are appealing the court’s declaration that, despite this evidence, UK weapons can continue to be sold to Saudi Arabia. 

Stand with us to show the UK government that we will not stand by and continue to watch them profit from war.  

About Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) 

GLAN pursues innovative legal actions across borders to challenge powerful actors involved in systemic human rights violations. We use the law to challenge powerful actors who use violate human rights during war for economic gains. 

GLAN's lawyers have been consistently using litigation for accountability for the worst atrocity crimes. We have done this through pioneering the use of open source evidence in Ukraine, pressurising the U.K. authorities to stop cotton imports linked to the Uyghur genocide, and challenging the U.K.'s involvement in war crimes in Yemen and Palestine through weapons sales.


Thank you so much for helping us disrupt the illegal sale of UK arms.

Update 2

Global Legal Action Network

Nov. 9, 2023

Government on final warning to suspend weapons sales to Israel

Photo source: Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street. Licensed under the Open Government Licence.

The UK’s Department for Business and Trade still hasn’t complied with our request to halt weapons exports to Israel. They’ve commented publicly that they have no plans to halt those arms licences.

More than 10,000 Gazans have been killed, almost half of those are children. Yet, the UK still thinks it is acceptable to continue selling arms and fuelling the relentless assault on civilians.

We have just submitted a final warning, demanding that weapons sales are immediately halted. This letter gives the British government one last chance to assess their own contributions to the war crimes taking place and suspend arms licenses.

If they continue to ignore our request, we will be elevating our complaint to the High Court who have the power to officially declare the weapon sales unlawful.

Continue supporting us and help bring the arms trade to a halt.

There is no time to lose.

Thank you,

The GLAN team

Update 1

Global Legal Action Network

Oct. 24, 2023

Experts now say there is risk of genocide in Gaza

Experts now say there is risk of genocide in Gaza - in addition to the war crimes and crimes against humanity already committed.


Yet the UK and other countries continue to export weapons to the Israeli military.

GLAN and Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq are submitting fresh information to the UK’s Department for Business and Trade to halt weapons exports to Israel. UK rules require that weapons may not be exported where there is a clear risk they might be used in violations of international law, as we are seeing right now in Gaza and the West Bank.


Crucially, an 18th October briefing by Center for Constitutional Rights found there is a credible case, based on significant evidence, that Israel is attempting to commit, if not actively committing, genocide against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.


On 19th October UN experts released an urgent statement: “We are sounding the alarm: There is an ongoing campaign by Israel resulting in crimes against humanity…there is also a risk of genocide"


A growing global community are calling for countries to uphold international law and prevent further atrocities against civilians in Gaza.


GLAN and our Palestinian partners need your help to continue our legal fight; please keep sharing this crowdfund, and our case page, to help ensure that UK law and basic humanitarian principles are upheld. 

Your support is invaluable. Thank you.

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