About the Arms Trade
In all parts of the world, the ready availability of weapons and ammunition has led to human suffering, repression, crime and terror among civilian populations. Irresponsible transfers of conventional weapons can destabilize security in a region, enable the violation of Security Council arms embargoes and contribute to human rights abuses. Importantly, investment is discouraged and development disrupted in countries experiencing conflict and high levels of violence, which also affect their ability to attain the Millennium Development Goals.
A problem for the UN
The United Nations is confronted with lax controls on the arms trade in many places in the world. Think of peacekeeping, delivering food aid, improving public health, building safer cities, protecting refugees or fighting crime and terrorism. In all those activities we face armed violence, conflict and civil unrest that lead to violations of international law, abuses of the rights of children, civilian casualties, humanitarian crises and missed social and economic opportunities necessary for development – often fueled by irresponsible arms deals.
No global norms
Important areas of world trade are covered by rules that bind countries into agreed conduct. But they are not bound by rules when transfering weapons. An eclectic set of national and regional control measures on arms transfers exists, but the absence of such an international framework has unnecessarily obscured transparency and trust.
Responsibility
States remain primarily responsible for providing security and protecting their populations, keeping to the rule of law. They take decisions on arms exports, either by granting export licences to companies, traders and brokers, or by doing an internal assessment when government-owned weapons are involved – which generally do not require an export licence. That is why governments are expected to display responsibility in their decisions regarding arms transfers. It ensures that such transfers do not exacerbate conflict or lead to violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.
Concerned by the misuse of weaponry around the world, civil society organizations have successfully mobilized governments and parliamentarians to call for the global regulation of the conventional arms trade. Within the UN, countries have started to negotiate an Arms Trade Treaty. They aim towards concluding it in 2012.
