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Africa's Missing Billions: International arms flows and the cost of conflict

March 8, 2011

Africa suffers enormously from conflict and armed violence. As well as the human tragedy, armed conflict costs Africa around $18bn per year, seriously derailing development. The most commonly used weapons in Africa's conflicts are Kalashnikov assault rifles. The vast majority of these weapons and their ammunition - perhaps 95 per cent - come from outside Africa. To protect lives and livelihoods, the 2008 UN Group of Governmental Experts working on the Arms Trade Treaty must ensure swift progress towards a strong and effective Treaty. All governments have a role to play in ensuring its success.

Arms Without Borders: Why a globalised trade needs global control

March 8, 2011

Globalisation has changed the arms trade. Arms companies, operating from an increasing number of locations, now source components from across the world. Their products are often assembled in countries with lax controls on where they end up. Too easily, weapons get into the wrong hands. Each year, at least a third of a million people are killed directly with conventional weapons and many more die, are injured, abused, forcibly displaced and bereaved as a result of armed violence. Rapidly widening loopholes in national controls demonstrate how this globalised trade also needs global rules. The time for an effective international Arms Trade Treaty is now.

The Call for Tough Arms Control: Voices from Haiti

March 8, 2011

Port au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, despite the presence of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). 1 Armed groups in the poor areas -- some loyal to former President Aristide, some loyal to rival political factions, and some criminal gangs -- have battled against the Haitian National Police (HNP) and UN military, and against each other. In just one medical mission in Port-au-Prince, some 1,400 people were admitted with gunshot wounds between December 2004 and October 2005. 'We're still receiving three gunshot victims a day. And there are more who go to the general [university] hospital -- or who are killed,' said the mission's head, Ali Besnaci of Médecins sans Frontières. 'This is like a war. There are always confrontations between the gangs and the UN peacekeeping force, MINUSTAH'. Many, if not most, of the victims have been innocent civilians. Irresponsible arms transfers still fuel atrocities in Haiti and in many other countries. Responsible arms exporters and arms-affected states must not be held back by the few states that want to impede progress. In 2006, they must begin negotiations to agree an ATT.

The Call for Tough Arms Control: Voices from Sierra Leone

March 8, 2011

Fighting began in Sierra Leone in March 1991, when a small number of rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) crossed the border from Liberia and began attacking civilians. By the time the war was declared over, tens of thousands had been killed out of a population of five million, thousands had been mutilated or raped, and an estimated 10,000 children had been abducted to be child soldiers. Up to two-thirds of the population had been displaced from their homes, and another 600,000 had fled the country. The deep roots of Sierra Leone's 11 years of war went back decades, involving corrupt governments that alienated the country's youth and all but destroyed basic institutions, including parliament, the police, and the civil service. This dissatisfaction led to support for the rebels in the early years of the war. Inadequate government control of the armed forces permitted coups and allowed government soldiers to switch from one side to the other. Another major source of fuel for the conflict was the support that the RUF rebels received from Charles Taylor, then president of Liberia, who had wider ambitions for power in West Africa. However, there was one factor that underpinned all of the others in sustaining the violence, and that was the continued supply of weapons, many of them paid for by the illegal sale of diamonds. Sierra Leone does not manufacture weapons. The outside world had to be prepared to supply them, and supply them it did. During all these years, both the countries that provided the weapons, and the countries through which they were shipped, failed to stop the flow of arms and ammunition to the rebels in Sierra Leone. The even wider failure is that of the international community at large which, even after these atrocities and others elsewhere, has failed to take the necessary measures to control the international arms trade. The rest of the world must take responsibility for the arms it supplies. To do that, governments should agree a new international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

The Call for Tough Arms Control: Voices from the Democratic Republic of the Congo

March 8, 2011

The war in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has cost millions of lives. Hundreds of thousands of people have been shot dead. Millions have died from the indirect consequences of war. What the figures do not reveal is the personal suffering of individual people, families, and villages. That is why in November 2005 the Control Arms campaign interviewed some of those who have suffered. The proliferation of conventional arms is too severe to be ignored any longer. Arms transfers still fuel atrocities in the DRC and many other countries. Responsible arms exporters and arms-affected states must not be held back by the few states that want to impede progress. In 2006, they must begin negotiations to agree an Arms Trade Treaty.

Lock, Stock and Barrel: How British arm components add up to deadly weapons

March 8, 2011

Since 1997, the UK has introduced robust criteria aimed at preventing the sale of weapons to countries where they could fuel conflict, undermine development, and violate human rights. But in today's global arms trade, weapons are increasingly assembled from components from many countries. Between 1998 and 2002, there was a four-fold increase in licences for the export of assault-rifle components from the UK. The UK applies weaker standards when licensing arms components then it applies to complete weapons. This is a potentially dangerous loophole which could allow UK components to contribute to suffering around the world. To prevent this, the UK should apply the same criteria in licensing components as it applies to complete weapons systems.

Towards an Arms Trade Treaty: Next steps for the UN programme of action

March 8, 2011

There is an imperative need for an international Arms Trade Treaty, based on fundamental principles of international law, to reduce the human cost of arms proliferation, prevent unscrupulous weapons suppliers finding the weakest point in the supply chain, and ensure that all arms exporters are working to the same standards. The ultimate goal is a firm and unambiguous international mechanism to prohibit the transfer of weapons and ammunition to places where they are likely to be used for serious abuses of human rights, or to violate international humanitarian law. Such a treaty would not hinder responsible trade, but it would prevent defence exports from undermining international security and prosperity. The UN Biennial Meeting of States on preventing the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in New York in July 2005 offers a vital opportunity for making progress towards the achievement of this goal.

UN Arms Embargoes: An overview of the last ten years

March 8, 2011

Despite the fact that every one of the 13 United Nations arms embargoes imposed in the last decade has been systematically violated, only a handful of the many arms embargo breakers named in UN sanctions reports has been successfully prosecuted. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, between 1990 and 2001 there were 57 separate major armed conflicts raging around the globe, yet only eight of them were subject to UN arms embargoes. Such embargoes are usually late and blunt instruments, and the UN Sanctions Committees, which oversee the embargoes, have to rely largely on Member States to monitor and implement them. Therefore, arms embargoes cannot be deployed effectively as an instrument by the UN to prevent illicit arms trafficking, without better national controls on international arms transfers. These controls are woefully inadequate. In addition, the Sanctions Committees of the Security Council have to rely on UN investigative teams and UN peacekeeping missions to investigate violations of embargoes and report compliance. However, these bodies usually have inadequate resources and time to do that work thoroughly.

The G8: Global arms exporters: Failing to prevent irresponsible arms transfers

November 8, 2010

The international arms trade lacks effective control. Irresponsible arms transfers continue to fuel armed violence. They contribute to violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and they undermine development. The uncontrolled proliferation of conventional arms, particularly small arms and light weapons (hereafter referred to as small arms), has taken a terrible toll on communities worldwide. The cost in lost lives, lost livelihoods and lost opportunities to escape poverty is incalculable.

Tracking Lethal Tools: Marking and tracing arms and ammunition: A central piece of the arms control puzzle

November 8, 2010

A global system for tracking illicit arms and ammunition is central to improving accountability in the international arms trade and preventing arms getting into the wrong hands. The United Nations negotiations to establish international Marking and Tracing controls present states with an historic opportunity to take a tough stance against the worldwide proliferation of illicit arms and the use of arms for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and to make real progress. This will be the first major international agreement to come out of the UN Programme of Action on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons and represents an acid test of its credibility. People in communities suffering from conflict and armed violence in all parts of the world depend upon the successful outcome of these negotiations. In addition to a marking and tracing treaty, states should also negotiate and agree complementary global instruments to prevent arms proliferation - an international Arms Trade Treaty and a treaty to control arms brokers and transporters.