Arms Trade Treaty May Bypass Anti-Riot Weapons

Arms Trade Treaty May Bypass Anti-Riot Weapons
By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 18, 2011 (IPS) – When weeklong negotiations on the control and regulation of the global arms trade were concluded last week, there was one missing link in the proposed treaty: riot control equipment used recently against peaceful demonstrators in the streets of Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen and Jordan.

The Arms Trade Treaty, which is expected to be finalised and signed next year, is either ambiguous or excludes “weapons of repression”, including rubber bullets, water cannons, tear gas canisters, and high voltage electric-shock stun guns.

Described as combat protective equipment, these weapons are used not only by national armed forces but also by law enforcement agencies, including the police and prison services.

The London-based Amnesty International (AI) warned that if certain types of security and police equipment such as non-military firearms, including riot guns, crowd control vehicles, shotgun ammunition and tear gas, are not clearly covered by the ATT, “many governments will not prevent such arms being supplied and used for serious violations of human rights”.

Jeff Abramson, coordinator of the Control Arms Secretariat, a global civil society coalition, told IPS the last draft of the chairman’s text will need to be transformed into treaty language, but the precise process as to how that will happen is still unclear.

“There could be both improvements and backsliding as that happens,” he said.

Members of the Control Arms coalition will be working hard to see that improvements occur on what is generally a positive paper now, he added.

“Those areas for improvement include inclusion of police and crowd control equipment, the same items that are often used to commit the abuses for which a robust Arms Trade Treaty would work to stop,” noted Abramson.

Currently, there are no comprehensive or binding international rules or treaties governing the international trade in conventional weapons. Gaps and loopholes in national controls allow weapons and armaments to end up in the hands of serious human rights abusers.

In a statement released Friday, AI pointed out the recent repression in the Middle East and North Africa demonstrates that a wide range of arms used by military, security and police forces must be covered under the scope of the ATT. …more