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Stopping the Illegal Arms Trade: SIPA Students Host Global Experts
"The arms trade is out of control at the moment.”
So says Anna MacDonald, one of four experts who spoke about the prospects for a global treaty on conventional weapons at a SIPA panel discussion. MacDonald is head of Oxfam's Control Arms campaign.
The United Nations is expected to complete negotiations on a proposed Arms Trade Treaty in 2012. Panelists gave a preview of negotiations taking place at the UN and spoke of the need for international cooperation to stem the more abusive aspects of the weapons trade.
While countries such as the United States have relatively strict export controls on weapons, the globalization of the arms industry is making national laws inadequate. For example, the notoriously abusive Sudanese military was able to buy Chinese helicopters made with parts from France and Britain, according to MacDonald.
Another panelist, Sarah deZoeten, First Secretary of the Australian Mission to the United Nations, says that an effective treaty must set rules for arms brokers and other middlemen. It should prevent arms shipments that could exacerbate conflicts or contribute to atrocities and should help less developed countries safeguard their stockpiles.
A total of 153 countries have expressed support for a treaty, but any rules that make it more difficult for governments to buy arms are unlikely to be agreed on.
"States are very concerned about ensuring their legitimate right to self-defense," deZoeten said.
Bukeni Waruzi, a program coordinator for the human rights organization WITNESS, spoke about the effects of the illegal arms trade in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Child soldiers, armed with machine guns from abroad, became a terror to their communities.
Waruzi argued that past efforts to stop the flow of weapons into Congo have failed, and it is difficult to see how the Arms Trade Treaty will be different.
"It becomes very challenging when you have to deal with non-state actors," he said.
Baffour Amoa, president of the West African Action Network on Small Arms, described how the call for an Arms Trade Treaty began in Mali when the country was flooded with guns in the 1990s.
SIPA's Human Rights Working Group and Humanitarian Affairs Working Group co-sponsored the event on February 22.
Tim Shenk, March 1, 2011