rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/letter/pass-the-stop-arming-human-rights-abusers-act?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-letter-area-pass-the-stop-arming-human-rights-abusers-act' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> World BEYOND War https://actionnetwork.org/groups/world-beyond-war https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg Please click "Start Writing," enter the contact information required by your Representative and Senators, and click "Send Letter." Doing so will send an email to your Congressional delegation. The United States government, according to its own reporting, accounted for 66% of all the weapons exported to the least democratic quintile of nations on earth in the most recent year reported (2017). The next biggest weapons dealers to these nations, the UK and Russia, are tied, accounting for 11% each. The U.S. government allows, arranges for, or in some cases even provides the funding for, U.S. weapons sales to 41 of the 50 most oppressive countries in the world. That’s 82 percent of them. (This figure is based on a U.S.-funded categorization of "not free" nations, and on U.S. weapons sales between 2010 and 2019 as documented by either the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Arms Trade Database, or by the U.S. military in a document titled “Foreign Military Sales, Foreign Military Construction Sales And Other Security Cooperation Historical Facts: As of September 30, 2017.” Here are the 41: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Ethiopia, Gabon, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen.) Of course, an extremely oppressive government, that of Israel, is not in that list but is the top recipient of "aid" funding for U.S. weapons from the U.S. government. A bill in the House (H.R.5880) would prevent U.S. weapons sales to nations (other than the United States) that are in violation of international human rights law or international humanitarian law. Support for this step in the right direction should not be interpreted as an endorsement of arming any governments not covered by the restrictions in the legislation. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/pass-the-stop-arming-human-rights-abusers-act