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Arms brokering activities;
Budgetary Control
Efforts to close down ‘grey’ or black market arms trading networks;
Control on end-users and follow-up checks to ensure that exported goods are not misused,
diverted or re-exported.
Transparency and audits
A number of points are usually raised when one defends the rule of non-disclosure of information
related to arms trade: commercial confidentiality; national security; security concerns of
recipient states; possible adverse effect on bilateral relations, etc. However, transparency of
arms trade and arms transfers brings several key benefits 17 :
It provides grounds for accountability of the executive to parliament and society;
Serves as a tool to overcome cases of mismanagement and corruption;
Facilitates coordination between officials from different governmental agencies in decisions
on arms exports;
Promotes confidence building and compliance with national and international regulatory
regimes.
While the optimal level of information disclosure is subject to further analysis, there is a clear
trend since the beginning of the 1990s in support of greater transparency in conventional arms
transfers. States are obliged to share significant amounts of information through the UN instrument
for standardized international reporting on military expenditures. Several other international
documents create obligations for exchange of information among states (Table 2 provides
a sample of such documents and initiatives).
Table 2. Sample of venues for information exchange on arms transfers
Information exchange initiatives Organizational format Established in
UN Register on Conventional Arms: Data on arms transfers,
military holdings, procurement form national sources
and relevant policies
United Nations 1991
Confidence- and Security-Building Measures (Vienna
OSCE 1994
1994 Document; Vienna 1999 Document)
1999
EU Code of Conduct for Arms Exports European Union 1998
South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Stability Pact for South
2002
Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC)
Eastern Europe
16 For details see http://www.saferworld.co.uk/iac/att.htm.
17 Bernardo Mariani and Angus Urquhart, Transparency and Accountability in European Arms Export
Controls: Towards Common Standards and Best Practice (London: Saferworld, December 2000),
http://svenska-freds.se/transparency/SafTraRep.PDF (02 November 2004).