Dear friends,
First and foremost, THANK YOU!
You may have seen the recent announcements regarding the Nobel Peace Prize winners.
We must say another huge thank you to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, to American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Quaker Peace & Social Witness for nominating us, to our partners Mwatana for Human Rights who we shared this nomination with and of course, to you, CAAT’s many campaigners and supporters for your dedication and commitment.
And we want to say a huge congratulations to winners Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression. Read more about the winners here.
We are grateful for the visibility this nomination has brought to CAAT’s ongoing legal case, the work of our partners Mwatana and the increased visibility it has brought to the ongoing war in Yemen.
Inspirational Yemeni groups like Mwatana for Human Rights have shown remarkable dedication in documenting human rights violations by all parties to the war and raising the voices of victims in exceptionally dangerous circumstances.
As Radhya Almutawakel, Chairperson of Mwatana, said originally, “This nomination is a source of strength for Mwatana as we continue our work towards a Yemen where there is credible and holistic accountability and redress for the civilians who have suffered the horrors of this war.”
CAAT and our supporters will continue to call out the UK government and companies for their role in fuelling the war in Yemen; do everything in our power to stop the sale of arms for use in the war; and demand a renewed focus on securing peace.
As well as Nobel Peace Prize nominations, CAAT has remained busy with numerous other activities, including tackling arms fairs such as the recent DSEI arms fair, which took place in London in September.
And whilst remaining busy and active has been good news, like many other organisations, CAAT has been affected greatly by the ongoing pandemic. The challenges sparked by it have exposed a real need to improve how we work, in terms of how we support staff and volunteers; stay in touch with supporters and campaigners; and organise our work.
It is important, therefore, that we take the time to reflect on how we operate as an organisation, to support the growth of our campaigning and the movements we are part of.
Over the next few months, we will be carrying out a root and branch review of how CAAT operates.
During this period, we will be reducing our activity to reflect our current lower capacity. We may be slower responding to you than we would like, and we will have limited ability to take on new areas of work during this time.
We would ask you to bear with us, during this period of transition.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding.
In the meantime, if you would like to donate to our work and ensure the fight continues, you can do so on our donations page – your support helps to fund work such as campaigning in support of our ongoing court case against UK government arms sales.
With gratitude and in solidarity,
The Team at Campaign Against Arms Trade.
