Mr. Ian Whitting Ambassador

UK Embassy

Laufásvegur 31
101 Reykjavík                                                        Reykjavík 14.05.2010

 

 

Your Excellency                                             

 

As your government prepares for the first Preparatory Committee to deliberate on the content of an international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in July 2010, we write to stress the urgent need for an effective treaty that will stop irresponsible arms transfers and help stop abuse, save lives, and protect livelihoods. Thousands of people are killed, injured, raped and forced to flee from their homes as a result of conflict, armed violence, and human rights violations and abuses perpetrated using conventional arms.  Given that there are only 120 hours of preparatory committee discussions prior to the negotiating conference in 2012, it is vital that the meetings in July make real and substantive progress towards developing key elements of the Treaty.

 

As a leading champion of the treaty, a major arms exporting country and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the UK has a vitally significant role to play in these Treaty deliberations. We urge you to use this role to respond to the needs of those who bear the human cost of the irresponsible arms trade, and to build on existing commitments which the UK has made in this area.

 

This week from 10th to 16th May, civil society organisations in over 110 countries are reminding governments that the poorly regulated global trade in conventional arms and ammunition has an enormous human cost. Inadequate and loophole-ridden regulation of international transfers of conventional arms permits such weapons, equipment and munitions to be supplied to those violating human rights: destroying lives and threatening livelihoods. The accompanying document provides a short overview of this ongoing human cost.

 

A robust ATT will address a glaring gap in international law.  While there are treaties to regulate the international trade of many products, from bananas to dinosaur bones, there are no global rules for the trade in conventional weapons: products specifically designed to kill and injure.

 

Amnesty International believes that a “strong and robust” treaty with “the highest possible common international standards”, as mandated by UN General Assembly resolution 64/48, must be one that prohibits international transfers of  arms where there is credible information indicating a substantial risk that the intended recipient is likely to use those arms to commit or facilitate grave harm, including:

 

- serious violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law,

- acts of genocide or crimes against humanity;

- terrorist attacks;

- gross and systematic armed crime and violence; and

- actions that seriously undermine poverty eradication objectives.

 

 

We are concerned that some States may propose an ATT which would significantly weaken these commitments by merely requiring states to “take into account” a number of “factors” including respect for international human rights law, international humanitarian law (IHL), terrorism and organised crime. Such weak parameters would be a dangerous backward step from current UK and EU practice in this area, and we urge the UK government to continue to insist that any transfers that demonstrate a substantial risk that they will violate these criteria must be prohibited in all circumstances.

 

We also welcome the UK’s commitment to a comprehensive scope in an ATT. To be effective the treaty must regulate transfers of:

·        all types of conventional military, security and police armaments, weapons and related materiel, including small arms and light weapons;

·        conventional ammunition and explosives used for the aforementioned;

·        weapons, ammunition and equipment deployed in the use of force by police and security forces;

·        components, expertise and equipment essential for the production, maintenance and use of the aforementioned; and

·        dual-use items that can have a military, security and police application.

 

To avoid loopholes, the Treaty must also regulate all types of international transfer (import, export, transit, gifts, loans and other transfers) and the transactions essential for a transfer in each case (including brokering activity).

 

Transparency in the international arms trade must be enhanced through robust reporting and record keeping provisions.  To ensure effective implementation, the Treaty should enforcement and dispute resolution mechanisms, and procedures for international cooperation and assistance.

 

We would like to call on the UK to use the opportunity of the forthcoming UN Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meetings in July to signal the UK government’s intent to negotiate an ATT with these essential elements and to resist any attempts by a minority of governments to weaken, delay or de-rail negotiations.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Jóhanna K. Eyjólfsdóttir

Director

Amnesty International Icelandic section