MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

THEME 2
1. Transfer criteria
Governments have international legal responsibilities with respect to their
decisions to permit small arms transfers. Under the PoA, Section 2, Article
11, states declared that they would ‘assess applications for export authorisations’
according to criteria ‘consistent with the existing responsibilities
of states under relevant international law’. The Agenda for Humanitarian
Action, agreed to in December 2003 by State Parties to the Geneva Conventions,
calls on governments to ‘make respect for international humanitarian
law one of the fundamental criteria on which arms transfers are
assessed’. States are encouraged to incorporate such criteria into national
laws or policies and into regional and global norms on arms transfers. 4
States’ obligations go beyond the duty to respect arms embargoes and
make them binding within their territories. Where supplying countries
make weapons and ammunition available even though they have reason to
believe these may be misused, they might become complicit in the resulting
armed atrocities. As pointed out by the UN Special Rapporteur on the
prevention of human rights violations committed with small arms and light
weapons, international law ‘could be interpreted to prohibit [states] from
transferring small arms knowing they will be used to violate human rights’. 5
The reports of the Special Rapporteur have pointed out that small arms
availability and misuse are intimately connected, and that international
standards on arms transfers must be clarified and strengthened if armsenabled
abuses are to be prevented.
BOX 5 IMPROVING TRANSFER CONTROLS STARTS AT HOME: NEW ZEALAND
By Phil Goff, Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control, New Zealand
Despite the disappointing outcome of the 2006 United Nations Small Arms
Review Conference, New Zealand remains firmly committed to upholding
the UN Programme of Action. The priority now should be on getting the
international small arms agenda back on track. We will work with others in
ensuring that this is achieved.
The Programme of Action remains very relevant to New Zealand’s immediate
region. Dangerous security situations within countries such as Timor
Leste, Solomon Islands and Bougainville could have been much more tragic
but for the progress achieved in removing and destroying firearms from
their communities.
The development of transfer controls regulating the trade in small arms
and light weapons will help curb the proliferation of these weapons into
the wrong hands. New Zealand has been active in support of the transfer
control initiative, launched by the UK. We have also been an active supporter
of the separate and more ambitious UK proposal on an arms trade treaty.
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