Open Letter to the Prime Minister: Ongoing Weapons Exports to Saudi Arabia

Ploughshares Featured, News

The undersigned, representing a cross-section of Canadian labour, arms controls, antiwar, human rights, international security, and other civil society organizations, are writing to reiterate our continued opposition to your government’s issuance of arms exports permits for weapons destined to Saudi Arabia. We write today adding to the letters of March 2019, August 2019, April 2020 and September 2020 in which several of our organizations raised concerns about the serious ethical, legal, human rights and humanitarian implications of Canada’s ongoing transfer of weapons to Saudi Arabia. We regret that, to date, we have received no response to these concerns from you or the relevant Cabinet ministers on the matter. Critically, we regret that Canada finds itself in violation of its international arms control agreements.

Comparing National Positions on Military Exports to Saudi Arabia

Kelsey Gallagher Conventional Weapons, Featured, Reports

Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest importer of weapons and the global north—in particular, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France—its main supplier. And this trade is growing. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Saudi arms imports for the period 2016-2020 were 61% greater than imports for the prior five-year period.  

Charting the way forward: Examining the principles of responsible use of military AI by Canada’s allies

Branka Marijan Emerging Technologies, Featured, Reports

There is a growing global consensus that all AI technology should exhibit the characteristics of transparency, justice and fairness, non-maleficence, and privacy. While a specific blueprint of responsible AI in defence applications has not yet emerged, shared commitments to reliable technologies that operate with an appropriate role for human judgement and experience are increasingly accepted.

SPECIAL REPORT: “No Credible Evidence” – Canada’s flawed analysis of arms exports to Saudi Arabia

Ploughshares Featured, Reports

Click on the image to download the Special Report by Amnesty International Canada and Project Ploughshares. Introduction The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a multilateral international agreement aiming to regulate international …

The UK process on norms and space security

Jessica West Featured, Reports, Space Security

On December 7, 2020, the United Kingdom-sponsored United Nations Resolution A/RES/75/36 was adopted by the UN General Assembly. Seeking to focus the global discussion on outer space security on ways of “reducing threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviour,” the objective is to build consensus on what it means to be a “responsible” actor in outer space.

Norms, space security, and arms control

Jessica West Featured, Reports, Space Security

Threats to the security of outer space are growing. More pronouncements that space is a warfighting domain are augmented by periodic accusations of, and demonstrations of, weapons tests. The latest research on global counterspace capabilities reveals an expanding and accelerating proliferation of capabilities that can target and harm objects in space.