Small arms for the poor

Social justice news
June 2006

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Small arms for the poor
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Small arms for the poor
Delegates from around the wolrd will meet at the United Nations in New York on June 27 through July 7 to review how small arms are contributing to violence around the world and determine what, if anything, the UN can do about it. Their work could not come too soon. According to a report presented to the UN Security Council by the Control Arms Campaign, UN arms embargoes are systematically violated and must be urgently strengthened if they are to stop weapons fuelling human rights abuses.

The campiagn reports that every one of the 13 UN arms embargoes imposed in the last decade has been repeatedly violated, and despite hundreds of embargo breakers being named in UN reports, only a handful have been successfully prosecuted.

"Over the past ten years systematic violations of United Nations arms embargoes have met with almost no successful prosecutions. Unscrupulous arms dealers continue to get away with grave human rights abuses and make a mockery of the UN Security Council’s efforts," said Irene Khan, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. The Control Arms Campaign (CAC) is a collaborative effort of Oxfam International, Amnesty International and International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA).

Control Arms campaigners appealed to the UN Security Council for states to strengthen the enforcement of UN embargoes and argued argue for a raft of new measures, including the urgent agreement of an International Arms Trade Treaty.

This Treaty would enable governments to act in unison to strictly control conventional arms transfers, thereby creating the conditions for UN arms embargoes to be properly respected. Since the Campaign began in October 2003, over 45 countries have stated their support for such a treaty.

According to the report:

• UN investigative teams tasked with monitoring the embargoes are given woefully inadequate resources and time.

• Despite UN mandatory arms embargoes being legally binding under international law, many states have not even made violating an embargo a criminal offence.

• Arms export, import and freight documents are routinely faked and state officials often cover up arms transfers.

• UN peacekeepers are sometimes not trained to adequately record markings on weapons, while UN missions do not have adequate means to monitor ports of entry in embargoed zones.

"Illegal arms dealers are getting away with murder on a daily basis. Embargoes must be strengthened but even then they will remain a blunt instrument. They are often imposed by the UN Security Council on the basis of politics rather than principles and are usually deployed too late to save lives. The world urgently needs an Arms Trade Treaty if we’re to stop weapons getting into the wrong hands," said Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's Director.

According to the CAC, between 1990 and 2001 only 8 of 57 conflicts had UN arms embargoes imposed. Even when UN embargoes were agreed, it was generally only once a conflict had begun. An Arms Trade Treaty would provide a broader framework to prevent weapons being sold before wars start or human rights abuses reach their peak. This would also enable tougher enforcement of UN embargoes according to common standards based on international law.

In just the 100 days that precedes the UN world conference on small arms starts in June, an estimated 100,000 people will be killed with arms and many more will be injured and suffer severely in other ways from armed violence, said Rebecca Peters, Director of the International Action Network on Small Arms.

Over 900,000 people in 160 countries have already given their photographs to the Million Faces Petition, which is the world’s largest photo petition, calling on leaders to back stricter controls on the arms trade. It will be delivered at the June conference, representing the million people who have been killed by arms since the last UN conference on small arms in 2001.

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