New Amnesty International Report on Arms Transfers

United Nations member states will be meeting next month to consider moving towards negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty.

Yesterday, the international human rights organization Amnesty International published the report Blood at the Crossroads: Making the case for a global arms trade treaty in an effort to urge governments to prevent arms transfers where there is a substantial risk that they are likely to be used for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law:

"The report ... is the first detailed examination of the parameters and scope of such a treaty using nine detailed case studies of the catastrophic human rights consequences of unrestrained arms trading. From the ongoing conflict in Darfur, military crackdowns in Myanmar and Guinea to the proliferation of sectarian violence in Iraq, the report shows how and why the current variation and loopholes in national arms legislation allows massive violations of human rights to occur. The report demonstrates that without an effective human rights provision, a global Arms Trade Treaty could fail to protect those most vulnerable."