On 2nd April 2013, the United Nations
General Assembly adopted the United Nations Arms Trade treaty. Only North
Korea, Iran and Syria voted to reject the treaty.[1]
The overwhelming adoption of the treaty was instigated by the need to promote world
peace by reigning in on the uninhibited and irresponsible transfer of arms
across borders. This irresponsible transfer of arms across borders has continued
to pose a threat to world peace by fuelling conflicts in a number of areas
including Africa's great lakes regions, Somalia, West Africa, Syria and Afghanistan just to mention a few.
The treaty was thus adopted in accordance with article 26 of the UN charter
that seeks to address the problem of militarism.[2]
Accordingly, this treaty seeks to; (1) establish
common international standards for regulating or improving the regulation of
international trade in conventional arms, and (2) prevent and eradicate the
illicit trade in conventional arms and prevent their diversion.[3]
It therefore provides a framework for regulating international trade in all conventional arms,
from small arms and light weapons to battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles,
large calibre artillery systems, attack helicopters aircraft, warships, and
missile and missile launchers.[4]
In order to actualize its purposes and objectives, the treaty imposes certain
obligations on the States Parties. This essay shall discuss those obligations.
The essay shall further provide an overview of the status of the treaty.
First and foremost each state party has a general
obligation to implement the treaty in a consistent, objective and non-discriminatory
manner.[6]
Below are some of the main obligations imposed on states parties.
(i)
Establishment of a national control system
Each state party is required to establish and maintain
a national control system, including a national control list in order to
facilitate the implementation of the provisions of the treaty.[7]
The control system shall be used to regulate the transfer of conventional arms covered
under article 2(1), and/or their items. The items referred to are; (1) ammunitions/munitions
fired, launched or delivered by the conventional weapons covered by the treaty,[8]
(2) parts and components which are in the form that provides the capability to
assemble the conventional arms covered by the treaty.[9]
Furthermore, the treaty obliges each state party to establish and maintain a
national control list and submit to the secretariat, which shall make it
available to other state parties.[10]
(ii)
Prohibition
Article 6 codifies a prohibition on the transfer of
conventional arms. The article imposes an obligation on a state party not to
authorize any transfer of conventional arms or their ammunition/munitions or
their parts and components if such a transfer would;
- Violate measures adopted by the United Nations
Security Council in particular arms embargoes.
- Violate its relevant international obligations
under international agreements to which it is a party, in particular those
relating to transfer of, or illicit trafficking in, conventional arms.
Additionally, the article also prohibits a state party
from authorizing the transfer of conventional arms and items, if it has
knowledge that arms or the items will be used in the commission of genocide,
crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, or
other war crimes.
(iii)
Export and Import
Article 7 of the treaty similarly imposes a number of
obligations on state parties with regard to the exportation of conventional
weapons. An exporting state party shall take measures to ensure that all
authorizations for the exportation of conventional arms under article 2.1, 3
and 4 are detailed and issued prior to export.[11]
Moreover, before the exportation, the exporting state should endeavour to assess
the potential risks of exporting the conventional arms or items. The assessment
should be done with the aim of ascertaining whether the export of the
conventional arms would contribute to or undermine peace and security or could
be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of International
humanitarian Law or International Human Rights law, terrorism or organized
crime.[12]
The exporting state will use the result of the risk assessment to determine
whether or not to export the arms.[13]
The importing state on is under a duty to provide the
exporting state party with the appropriate and relevant information to
facilitate the efficient assessment of risk.[14]
Moreover, each importing state party shall take necessary measures to regulate
imports of conventional arms under its jurisdiction. [15]
With regard to diversion, article 11 of the treaty
calls for state parties involved in the transfer of conventional arms to take
measures to prevent their diversion. Therefore, the importing, transit,
trans-shipment and exporting state parties need to cooperate and exchange
information pursuant to national laws in order to mitigate the risk of
diversion.
(iv)
Transit or trans-shipment
Article 9 places an obligation on each state party to
take appropriate measures to regulate, where necessary and feasible, the
transit or trans-shipment under its jurisdiction of conventional arms through
its territory in accordance with international law.
(v)
Reporting
Finally, each state party is required to prepare a
report and submit to the secretariat detailing how the state is implementing
the treaty.[16]
Additionally, state parties are also encouraged to report to other state
parties through the secretariat, information on measures taken that have been
proven effective in addressing the diversion of transferred conventional arms.
Critique
The above obligations as contained in the treaty are
however not definitive. The framers of the treaty sought to leave the state
parties with the freedom to determine how well to fulfil the obligations
imposed by the treaty. Consequently, party state have the freedom, to determine
the nature of the national legislation and administrative measures that can be
best used to implement the treaty provision. In other cases, the treaty only
provides that the state parties are to fulfil their obligation as appropriate. It
therefore remains to be seen whether state parties will be willingness to
fulfil completely their obligations under the treaty.
Status
of the treaty
The treaty was opened for signatures on 3rd
June 2003 and up to now, it has been signed by 83 states. So far, only 4 states have ratified the
treaty. These states include Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Iceland and Nigeria.
The treaty will take effect once it is ratified by at least 50 states.[17]
It has therefore not yet entered into force. Within the East African community,
only Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi are signatories to the treaty.
CONCLUSION
All in all, the treaty marks a major step in the war
against the illegal transfer of conventional arms across borders. The
obligations imposed by the treaty underscore the commitment by the state
parties to tighten controls over the international import, export and transfer
of conventional arms. Such controls will play a crucial role in preventing the
diversion of conventional arms from the legal international trade into illegal
markets and eventually into the hands of terrorist organizations, illegal
translational military groups and organized criminal cartels. The treaty will
subject trade in conventional weapons to strict rules.[18]
[1] "JURIST - Hotline: Arms
Trade Treaty Shows Remarkable Progress." JURIST
- Hotline: Arms Trade Treaty Shows Remarkable Progress. N.p., n.d. Web. 13
Sept. 2013.
[2] Charter of the United Nations, 26
June 1945, Can TS 1945 No 7 - Article 26 states; ' in order to promote the
establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the
least diversion for armament of the world's economic resources, the Security
council shall be responsible for formulating plans to be submitted to the
members of the United Nations for the establishment of a system for the
regulations of armaments.'
[3] article 1 of the treaty
[4] Article 2(1) of the treaty
[5] "Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) | Treaties & Regimes |
NTI." NTI: Nuclear Threat
Initiative. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.
[6]
Article 5 Arms Trade
Treaty 2013
[7] Ibid
[8] Article 3 Arms Trade Treaty 2013
[9] Article 4 Arms Trade Treaty 2013
[10] article 5 Arms Trade Treaty 2013
[11] Article 7(5) Arms Trade Treaty 2013
[12] Article 7(1) Arms Trade Treaty 2013
[13] A state is under a duty not to
authorize exportation if there is risk that the conventional weapons will
undermine peace or security.
[14] Article 8(1) Arms Trade Treaty 2013
[15] Article 8(2) Arms Trade
Treaty 2013
[16] Article 13 Arms Trade
Treaty 2013
[17] "Landmark Arms Treaty Needs Ratification by 50
States." DW.DE. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.
[18]"JURIST
- Hotline: Arms Trade Treaty Shows Remarkable Progress." JURIST - Hotline: Arms Trade Treaty
Shows Remarkable Progress. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.
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