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France Should Stop Selling Arms to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia

Macron Should Address Rights Abuses in Gulf Region

This week, French President Emmanuel Macron will visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with a large delegation of French ministers and major business executives. In the UAE, he will apparently be finalizing a weapons deal, when…
News

South Africa: Police Kill Bystander at Protest

Punish Officers Responsible; Improve Training; Halt Use of Rubber Bullets

(Johannesburg) – The South African police unlawfully used excessive and disproportionate force to disperse student protesters at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) on March 10, 2021, killing a bystander, Human Rights Watch said today.…
Three protesters were arrested and taken to the Hillbrow police station on Wednesday.
News

France Should Halt Arms Exports to Saudi Arabia, Egypt

Arms Sales to Rights-Abusing Countries Fuel Atrocities Against Civilians

Last week, the French government published its latest report on arms exports, documenting sales and transfers throughout 2019. After Qatar, the governments of Saudi Arabia and Egypt received the greatest amounts, accounting for €1.4 billion and €1.0…
French-made Leclerc tanks of the Saudi-led coalition are deployed on the outskirts of the Yemeni port city of Aden during a military operation, August 3, 2015.
News

Open Letter to Edouard Philippe, Prime Minister of France

M. Edouard Philippe Premier Ministre Hôtel de Matignon 57 rue de Varenne 75007 Paris Paris, Wednesday, February 5, 2020. Mr. Prime Minister, The Saudi cargo ship Bahri Yanbu is due to arrive in Cherbourg…
French human rights activists wave flags as they demonstrate in front of Saudi cargo ship Bahri Tabuk docked at le "Grand Port Autonome de Marseille" GPAM in Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhone, on May 29, 2019.
News

French Police to Stop Using Explosive Tear Gas Grenades

Other Dangerous Crowd Control Weapons Remain in Use

This week, France’s Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced that French police would stop using the controversial GLI-F4 tear gas grenade. This move is long overdue, but doesn’t address serious concerns about other weapons…
Protester picks up a tear gas grenade during a police charge on December 8, 2019 on the Champs Elysees, Paris.
News

‘Killer Robots:’ Ban Treaty Is the Only Credible Solution

New International Law Is Essential to Retain Human Control Over Use of Force

(New York) – France, Germany, and other nations that are committed to a rules-based international order should begin negotiations on a new international treaty to ban preemptively lethal autonomous weapons systems, also known as fully autonomous…
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News

France: Guarantee Press Freedom

17 Organizations Denounce Threats to Prosecute Journalists Investigating French Arms Sales

(Paris) – Seventeen humanitarian and human rights organizations denounced threats to press freedom after three French journalists were summoned by French intelligence services for investigating the presence of French weapons in the conflict in Yemen,…
People are seen near a bus destroyed by an airstrike that killed dozens of children, in a photograph taken on August 12, 2018 in Saada, Yemen.
News

France: Press UAE Crown Prince on Abuses in Yemen

French Arms Sales to Coalition Raise Complicity Concerns

(Paris) – President Emmanuel Macron of France should raise serious concerns with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince regarding laws-of-war violations in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said today. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan of the United Arab…
Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck three apartment buildings in Faj Attan, a densely populated neighborhood in Sanaa, on August 25, 2017. Two of the buildings were completely destroyed and the third suffered extensive damage. Saudi-led coalition aircraft
News

Killer robots: France Should Support a Ban Treaty

Campaign to Stop Killer Robots Press Release

(Paris) – The French members of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots on November 7, 2018 published a report "Why France Must Oppose the Development of Killer Robots," which recalls the risks arising from the development of lethal…
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News

Pakistan: Militant Attacks Escalate As Election Nears

Authorities Should Enhance Security to Ensure Free and Fair Vote

(New York) – Pakistan’s interim government should take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of candidates and political party activists who are at risk of attack from the Taliban and other militant groups, Human Rights Watch said…
A political party worker comforts another after a suicide attack during an election campaign meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan, July 10, 2018.
News

Will Macron Have Courage to End Arms Sales to Saudis?

President Emmanuel Macron’s diplomatic vision presented to his ambassadors this summer does honor to France. The president, who believes the country has an “unprecedented responsibility” in the face of a “profoundly disturbed” world order, made a…
People stand at the site of a Saudi-led air strike on an outskirt of the northwestern city of Saada, Yemen, August 4, 2017.
News

France: Exclude Russian Arms Dealer from Paris Show

Shun Rosoboronexport, Leading Weapons Supplier to Syria

(Paris) – France should reconsider allowing Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state-owned arms trading company, to participate in Euronaval, a major international arms show being held outside of Paris from October 17 to 21, 2016, human rights groups EuroMed…
FRANCE SYRIA statement photo Russia Rosoboronexport 15 Oct 2016
News

Dispatches: France Destroys Its Cluster Munitions

A Leader in Rejecting Weapons So Deadly to Civilians

France has completed the destruction of its stockpile of 34,876 cluster munition rockets and artillery projectiles that contained 14.9 million explosive submunitions, meeting a key obligation of the international ban treaty. It has also strongly condemned…
A pile of shoes during the annual demonstration by NGO Humanity and Inclusion denouncing antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions in Lyon on September 20, 2014.
News

UN: Hold International Talks on ‘Killer Robots’

Governments Should Address Fully Autonomous Weapons

(New York) – All governments should support international talks to address the threat posed by fully autonomous robotic weapons, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic on October 21,…
News

Q&A on Fully Autonomous Weapons

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies will soon make possible the development of fully autonomous weapons, which would revolutionize the way wars are fought. These weapons, unlike the current generation of armed drones, would be…
Report

Losing Humanity

Summary With the rapid development and proliferation of robotic weapons, machines are starting to take the place of humans on the battlefield. Some military and robotics experts have…
News

France: Exclude Syria’s Arms Supplier from Paris Arms Show

Companies Should Shun Russian Arms Exporter Rosoboronexport

(Paris) – France should reconsider allowing Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state-owned arms trading company, to participate in Eurosatory, a major international arms show being held outside Paris from June 11 to 15, 2012. The arms show is “organized under the…
News

US: End CIA Drone Attacks

Demonstrate ‘Targeted Killings’ Adhere to International Law

(Washington, DC) – The US government should transfer Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) command of aerial drone strikes to the armed forces and clarify its legal rationale for targeted killings, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to President Barack…
News

Q & A: US Targeted Killings and International Law

Following the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush began a campaign of “targeted killings” against suspected members of al Qaeda and other armed groups. It has continued under the administration of President…

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