Let's Make A Deal...

A friend at work recently gave me the book ‘As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela’, written back in 2006 by UK Comedian and Activist Mark Thomas. I’ve only just started reading it (I’m about a quarter of the way through) but it’s drawn me in and I’m enthralled despite the issue it focuses on.  Mark writes about the global arms trade, exposing the lack of international regulation and how easy it is to sell firearms to the likes of Mugabe, circumventing official government ‘codes of conduct’. If you’re looking for an eye opening read I recommend getting yourself a copy, or borrow a copy to save a few trees. I’ll keep reading the book but decided I wanted to dig a little deeper and find out more about the current issue and what the international community is doing to resolve it.

Today, there are over 600 million items of small arms in circulation around the world. This may not seem significant, but according to Oxfam, around 500,000 individuals die in small arms-conflicts every year, approximately one death per minute. About 60% of human rights violations documented by Amnesty International have involved the use of small arms and light weapons. The US is the top supplier of weapons to other countries, accounting for around 30% of worldwide weapons sales, followed by Russia, Britain, Germany, France and China. The main buyers of arms are China, India, and the United Arab Emirates. (Source, The Economist).

- Child in Sri Lanka living near a landmine site (Oxfam Website) -

 It’s frightening to learn how the Western World can be indirectly responsible for facilitating war, conflict and providing weapons to groups and leaders who commit atrocities against human rights. These can range from kidnapping, rape, murder, execution, and recruiting child soldiers all which invariably lead to forced displacement and starvation. The vast majority of armed conflicts today are internal. Many internal conflicts have persisted for decades, despite significant international efforts to find solutions. These conflicts are often triggered by issues of identity, ethnicity, religion and competition for resources, particularly oil and mineral wealth. I’m sure we all remember Dia who gets kidnapped and recruited as a Child Soldier in the movie Blood Diamond? The movie depicts the Sierra Leone Civil War and portrays a perfect example of how demand by the Western World for a commodity such as diamonds pays to fuel an internal conflict and provide groups with Firearms. Yes Leo Dicaprio performs a heroic rescue but the reality is many of these children are killed, wounded, disabled or grow up to live a life of abhorrent crime.

- Somalia continues to suffer from conflict and food crises (Oxfam website)- 

I have a way to go in learning about it all, but it seems there needs to be more accountability on the arms trade within the international community.  Although international organisations such as the United Nations have advanced in their capacity to monitor and report on human rights in conflict situations, few perpetrators of mass abuses against civilians are held accountable for their actions.
On a positive note progress on regulation of global arms is slowly improving. Since the 1990s Amnesty International has been campaigning for a global treaty to set rules for the strict regulation of the international arms trade. Leading up to July 2012, all governments will negotiate the text of the treaty at the United Nations. Amnesty International believes it is crucial that the treaty includes:

• Strong rules that protect human rights, preventing arms from being sent to those who would most likely use them to seriously violate these rights;
• A control list that includes all types of weapons, munitions and other arms;
• Clear rules to apply and monitor the Treaty with reporting to ensure they are enforced.

The international trade in conventional arms is not the only arms control issue addressed by Amnesty International. They also research and address problems posed by inhumane weapons, ‘less lethal’ weapons and inhumane technologies used in policing and prisons. (Source, Amnesty International).

- Talks underaway at  the UN on a Global Arms Trade Treaty (UN Website) -

I’ve only skimmed the surface here, and the global arms trade is far more complex and layered, requiring a little more than a blog post to cover it all. Let’s hope that international organisations such as the United Nations, Oxfam and Amnesty International in collaboration with governments are able to progress in advocating for the significant intervention needed to help control the illegal arms trade.

Thanks for reading!

Best wishes,

 

Luke Purcell