Weapons trade, human rights and international law

The publications selected for this Context Statement examine the content and implementation of existing rules agreed amongst States, and propose new rules and regulatory practices, to prevent arms transfers from being used to contribute to serious violations of international human rights law (IHRL) and international humanitarian law (IHL). The key rules, and specific measures for their implementation, have slowly been set out in an emerging array of international and regional instruments, guidelines and mechanisms. Some of the rules constitute express prohibitions in international law, while other rules are limitations that depend on a State’s assessment of the risks of serious harm arising from a given arms transfer. All the rules relate to whether or not foreseeable and serious harm would occur if the transfer were to be allowed. Some of the proposals made in the publications were subsequently discussed by this author with representatives of States in the United Nations and/or other inter-governmental fora. (...)