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18/06/2021

Opposition to the State Department’s Motion to Dismiss

Appears in case: Application for Judicial Review against the US Department of State and US Secretary of State

Jurisdiction

United States of America

Locale

Armed Conflict in Yemen, Armed Conflict in Libya

Recipient State

United Arab Emirates

Document Type

Claimant Submissions

The plaintiffs reassert that they are merely seeking to hold the government to its procedural obligations rather than challenging its foreign policy decisions.nnn

In particular, the plaintiffs challenge the State Department’s jurisdictional arguments, which claimed that this is a non-justiciable matter as no one can challenge the executive’s decision to sell arms to another country because it involves foreign policy and national security questions. It is submitted that the individual survivors of the air strikes remain at risk of harm at the hands of the UAE and this is clearly substantiated based on evidence of its ongoing behaviour in Yemen and Libya, rather than merely ‘speculative’ harm as argued by the government . The government’s argument regarding the justiciability of this complaint is also challenged, as it is clarified that the claimants are not challenging the foreign policy or national security decisions of the executive, but are merely seeking to hold the State Department to its procedural obligations, namely to provide a reasoned justification for any change in policy.

Read the State Department’s motion to dismiss here.