In recent years, Germany has regularly approved arms exports to countries where child soldiers are used. Despite the temporary stop on exports in November 2018, and the brutal warfare in Yemen, Saudi Arabia was one of the German armament industry’s primary customers in 2018.
Small arms and associated ammunition, which result in very high mortality rates among civilians, continue to be exported to countries where child soldiers are fighting. in 2018, over 50 percent of Germany’s arms have been exported to so-called third countries (neither of EU Member States, nor NATO or NATO-equivalent states), where numerous cases of war and massive human rights breaches have been reported. In 2017, the figure was indeed over 60 percent. This conflicts with both the German federal government’s political directives on armament exports, and with the EU’s Common Position.
- The National Coalition Germany recommends that the UN Committee call on the German federal government to
- 145. Comply with Recommendation 77c of the UN Committee’s Concluding Observations from 2014 in ensuring maximum transparency in relation to the transfer of arms, and legally ban the sale of arms in cases when there is a risk of the final destination being a country in which children may be recruited for or used in hostilities.