Bombings in Yemen: an interactive map to chart the impact of European arms on the war

In December 2019, ECCHR, Mwatana for Human Rights and other European partner organisations including the Centre Delàs d’Estudis per la Pau, called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the criminal responsibilities of corporate and government executives from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The organisations argue that by issuing export authorisations and exporting arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, these European actors may be contributing to serious violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen, including war crimes.   

While awaiting the judgement in the case, the organisations European Center of Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Mwatana, Yemeni Archive and Bellingcat, have developed the interactive map Bombings in Yemen. Applying graphical and cartographic techniques to information gathered from extensive field research, open-source research and legal analysis, the platform illustrates the impact of European arms exports on the continued targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure and cultural heritage sites. To this end, the map exposes the relationships between documented airstrikes, the remains of European weapons found, and a chronology of European countries’ arms exports to the coalition. The platform shows that these exports continued despite consistent and overwhelming evidence of atrocities in Yemen linked to European weapons.

In this way, it hopes to strengthen advocacy on the impact of the European arms trade, while displaying a range of complex data on a map accessible to the general public.

The map can be viewed at the following link: https://yemen.forensic-architecture.org/ 

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