Briefings
Arms Trade Bulletin July – August 2019
Gender-Based Violence and Arms Transfer Controls – is it still just talk and no real action? The Fifth Conference of States Parties (CSP5) to the Arms Trade Treaty was being held in Geneva between 26th and 30th August 2019. The theme of CSP5 was gender and gender based violence (GBV), which is a very widespread problem worldwide, fuelled as it is by dominant cultures that equate masculinity with t
Arms Trade Bulletin May – June 2019
Arms proliferation still undermining peace prospects in Libya The chaos within Libya has given rise to a score of armed groups. Porous borders and the cross-border proliferation of arms and ammunition enables these armed groups to engage in a wide variety of illegal activities, which in turn undermine peace and security in Libya and the neighbouring countries. Weapons from Libya’s stockpile
Arms Trade Bulletin March-April 2019
UK arms supplies to Saudi Arabia – a view from London “This is the fourth anniversary of the latest stage of a terrible conflict. Britain will do everything possible to ensure that Yemen’s people do not have to suffer a fifth.” These were the words of the Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt in March 2019, on the fourth anniversary of the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen. That same day, Saudi-led forces bom
Arms Trade Bulletin – December 2018 – February 2019
STOP ARMING YEMEN THE VIEW FROM PARIS By Benoît Muracciole and Jean Claude Alt for ASER All parties involved in the war in Yemen continue to plunge the population into what the United Nations Secretary General has denounced as “the planet’s worst humanitarian crisis.” One estimate put the death toll at nearly 60,000 since 2016. Hostilities between the Saudi Arabia-led Coalition and the Houthi and
Arms Trade Highlights October-November 2018
EDITORIAL No Common Position By Frank Slijper – PAX The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October put the Saudi royal family under more pressure than the immense human suffering in Yemen largely caused by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Especially for Yemenites, the public outcry after Khashoggi’s killing is a cynical co
Arms Trade Highlights July-September 2018
“A high rate of access to firearms results in a high rate of intentional deaths with firearms (e.g. homicides and suicides)”. That is the conclusion of a new study on “Global Mortality from Firearms, 1990-2016” in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research was done by the Global Burden of Disease 2016 Injury Collaborators at various universities and research centres. The authors
Arms Trade Highlights May – June 2018
On 8 June 2018 the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court acquited the Congolese businessman Jean-Pierre Bemba from the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the troops of his Mouvement de libération congolais (MLC) in the Central African Republic between October 2002 and March 2003. The then President of the Central African Republic, Ange-Félix Patassé, had c
Arms Trade Highlights March – April 2018
This briefing on arms trade demonstrates once again how arms or military technology and equipment are exported from European countries to countries where, arguably, they can contribute to serious human rights violations or violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Some of these transfers are challenged by civil society. On 12 April the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) was at the Court
Arms Trade Highlights: January – February 2018
The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is entering its fourth year. For signatories to the ATT, its implementation and translation into national laws often remains a challenging work-in-progress. Others, like Canada, have plans to accede to the ATT. For a thorough legal and practical analysis of the ATT, we like to remind you of the book “Weapons and International law: The Arms Trade Treaty”, published by La
Arms Trade Highlights: November – December 2017
Data interpretation: a cautionary tale As much as strong datasets are a prerequisite for strong interpretations, the framework used to interpret data is equally important. Which contextual factors are considered or not, which definitions applied or thresholds used will strongly impact the message that will emerge, especially out of complex, geo-political settings. An in-depth knowledge and conside
Arms Trade Highlights: August – October 2017
Arms Trade Treaty UN’s Arms Trade Treaty ‘too weak to make a difference’ | 11 September 2017 | DW Diplomats from over 100 countries met in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday to discuss why the United Nations’ landmark Arms Trade Treaty (ATT),which came into force three years ago, has so far failed to stop the flow of weapons to the world’s war zones. Celebrated as a paradigm shift in the regulation of
Arms Trade Highlights: March – May 2017
IPIS Publications Fatal Freight: Ships, Guns and Human Rights Abuses TransArms and IPIS undertook a thorough research of the responsibilities of states and companies involved in the transfer of military equipment by sea under customary international law. The maritime transport is by far the main modality for the transfers of military equipment and commodities. The report considers cases of irrespo
Arms Trade Highlights: January – February 2017
On 17 January 2017, a four-year investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into 30 years of bribery and corruption on a global scale (Angola, UK, United States, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Thailand…) by Rolls-Royce PLC came to an end. The investigation will continue into the conduct of individuals. The SFO entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with Rolls-Royce following appro
Arms Trade Highlights: November – December 2016
In our last Arms Trade Bulletin, we reported on a Canadian-owned company (Streit Group) that had allegedly sold armoured vehicles from its UAE factory to Sudan in contravention of UN and Canadian embargoes . It was reported that the same company had also sold vehicles to South Sudan, although Streit claimed that those vehicles were not military, and the end user of the vehicles was not present on
Arms Trade Highlights: September – October 2016
In Brazil two former executives of arms company Forjas Taurus are accused of diverting 8,000 small arms in 2013 to Yemen. The prosecutor claimed that the defendants committed fraud by disguising the final destination of the weapons, and also tried to hide the identity of the arms broker. The arms broker Fares Mohammed Hassan Mana’a had been put on a UN sanctions list in 2010 for violating the UN a
Arms Trade Highlights: July 2016
The present editorial is inspired by our recent experience at a European arms control event where we witnessed German arms officials seeking to whitewash Germany’s arms export policy. The double standard revealed by said officials is exemplary of the discrepancy between words and deeds as regards national arms export controls. Although far from being the only European country that can be blamed fo
Arms Trade Highlights: May – June 2016
THERE IS NO ‘MR BIG’ by Brian Johnson-Thomas Hush – Terrorists get their weapons from governments…… Every so often one or other of us gets a phone call from some excited TV documentary producer or magazine journalist wanting to do a really big number on the, presumably, secretive villain who supplies the guns and ammunition to the likes of the Islamic State and Al Quaida wherever they happen to be
Arms Trade Highlights: March – April 2016
This edition of IPIS’ Arms Trade Bulletin highlights two international arms transfers that continue to create a stir in arms-related media coverage. These are namely, the Heckler & Koch arms deal with Mexico – inquiry into which has seen German journalists fall into the cross hairs of prosecuting authorities –, and the Franco-Saudi-Lebanese arms deal. Mimicking the Turkish handling of journali
Arms Trade Highlights: January – February 2016
In our last editorial, we cautioned not to overlook government-approved arms transfers to unstable regions in the face of a focus on the illicit trafficking of arms used in terrorist attacks. Current events, especially surrounding arms transfers to Saudi Arabia and the situation in Yemen, confirm this concern. The conflict in Yemen continues to escalate. Various exporting countries are profiting f
Arms Trade Highlights: October – December 2015
2015 ended with sad news: the death of our colleague and friend, Sergio Finardi. The world has lost a brilliant arms trade and defence logistics researcher. Although publicly ignored by some, his research was freely copied by those same entities and often left uncredited. His mark on his field of expertise remains indelible. Some of the perpetrators of the 13 November Paris terrorist attacks were
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