Arms Trade Treaty Campaign Briefing - Amnesty International

“He fell on the ground but nobody was able totake him away from the street as the tanks werenearby. That is when an army tank deliberatelycrushed his body repeatedly.”eyewitness account of the killing of Khaled al-hamedh in hama, syria© JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty ImagesiNtroductioNEach year, the global trade in conventionalarms carries an enormous human cost.Serious human rights abuses have beencommitted around the world using a widerange of weaponry, armaments, munitionsand related material. Thousands of peoplehave been killed, injured, raped and forcedto flee from their homes as a result.Weaknesses and loopholes in existingnational, regional and multilateral armscontrol mechanisms have enabled statesand other parties to continue trading armsirresponsibly and with impunity. But nowthe absence of international standardsto adequately regulate conventional armstrading and transfers can finally beaddressed.In July 2012, UN member states will beinvited to the UN conference to negotiatean Arms Trade Treaty. Prior to this, stateswill be refining their positions on theTreaty’s content and participating in thefinal preparatory meeting in February 2012.Now is the time to ensure that the Treatycontains the highest possible commonstandards for the import, export andtransfer of conventional arms. This isessential to help prevent serious violationsof international human rights law andinternational humanitarian law.The likelihood of an international armstransfer being used to commit or facilitateserious violations of international law mustbe rigorously assessed and, where the riskis substantial, the transfer should not beauthorized. Risk analysis should alsoexamine the likelihood of any foreseeableevents to prevent such future violations.This briefing documents five personal storiesin the context of human rights violationscommitted or facilitated using conventionalarms in law enforcement or militaryoperations. The main suppliers of the types ofarms used by military, security or police forces,or armed groups are shown in each case.Amnesty International is calling on politicalleaders and state officials to take action forthe individuals in the following cases usingthe postcards provided and to lobby theirgovernments to commit to an effective ArmsTrade Treaty with respect for human rightsat its core.syriaLives Lost iN vioLeNtcrackdowNKhaled al-hamedhShortly after breakfast on 31 July 2011,21-year-old construction worker Khaledal-Hamedh left his home in the city ofHama to buy medicine for his four-year-oldbrother, who had a fever. He never camehome. Several hours later, family memberslaid him to rest in the garden of nearbyal-Serjawi mosque, his body crushed anda bullet wound in his back.When Khaled al-Hamedh walked out intoHama’s Bab Qebli neighbourhood thatmorning, Syrian security forces wereencroaching on the city with tanks andfiring into residential areas. Bystanders laterrecounted to his family that he had been“shot in the back while attempting to crossover to the hospital”. An army tank thendeliberately drove over him. Only when thetanks had pulled away could bystandersapproach and take Khaled al-Hamedh’sbody to the hospital.amnesty international January 2012 index: aCt 30/001/2012