General Assembly
Controlling the International Arms Trade
While weapons can be necessary and useful tools to the wellbeing and peacekeeping of a nation, illegal trade of arms can worsen situations where human rights violations are prevalent. In October 2003, Amnesty International joined forces with Oxfam and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) to create the Control Arms Campaign. The campaign is calling for an international, legally binding Arms Trade Treaty to ease the suffering caused by irresponsible conventional weapons transfers.
Arms are still being transferred to Darfur, Sudan for military operations in which extremely serious violations and abuse of human rights and international humanitarian law are committed by the Sudanese government, the government-backed Janjaweed militias and armed opposition groups. There is a high risk that weapons supplied to Sudan from China, Russia, Iran, Belarus, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have been used to commit or support human rights abuses in Darfur. Amnesty International is urgently calling upon the international community to adopt steps to expand and strengthen the implementation of the UN arms embargo and stem the flow of arms to Darfur. Amnesty also calls for all governments to immediately suspend arms transfers to all parties involved in the conflict in Darfur.