Contract arms trafficking signed by 115 members UN. They are not supposed to export weapons to conflict areas, but almost no one complies with this.
When these days in Germany we talk about the delivery of weapons, we first think of arming and supporting Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression, writes DW.
The principle that Germany's policy followed before the war in Ukraine - that weapons should not be delivered to crisis regions or to regions where wars are being waged - has been almost forgotten.
It has also been forgotten that Germany is one of the 115 countries that signed the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) at the end of 2014, which has completely disappeared from public discussion in a world where nationalism and war mood have strengthened. .
The Conference of the Signatory States ten years later
Last week, a conference of ATT signatory countries, the tenth in a row, was held in Geneva.
The humanitarian organization Amnesty International makes a sobering conclusion: although some of the largest arms exporters come from signatory countries, they simply ignore the basic rules of the treaty.
By exporting to conflict areas such as the Gaza Strip, Sudan and Myanmar, these companies contribute to new suffering and death.
In an interview with DW, Matthias Jon, Amnesty's arms expert, recalls the most important function of the ATT treaty: "States undertake not to approve the export of weapons that lead to violations of international human rights and humanitarian law."
According to Jon, back then, ten years ago in New York, the categories for the types of weapons that should be banned were meticulously listed:
"These are, for example, battle tanks, fighter planes, warships, but also small arms. Also, the great success of the agreement was that states are obliged to apply this export ban to ammunition as well."
The same volume of arms trade
Ten years later, the result of this contract is disappointing. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in March that global arms transfers between 2019 and 2023 fell by 3,3 percent compared to the previous five-year period, but European countries simultaneously imported 94 percent more weapons over the same period. than in the previous five years.
The biggest growth, of course, is recorded by Ukraine due to Russian aggression, first in Crimea in 2014, and then with the attack on Ukraine in the spring of 2022.
In contrast, far fewer arms are exported to Africa, so that the overall level of arms trade globally has remained roughly the same between 2014 and today.
Israel, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar
Amnesty lists three areas where the treaty is specifically being violated. Led by the United States as the largest arms supplier, several countries continue to supply Israel with weapons, even though there is ample evidence that international law is being violated in the war in the Gaza Strip.
In the civil war in Sudan (with the largest number of internally displaced people in the world), Serbia appears as a supplier of weapons, despite the UN Security Council's embargo on weapons in the Darfur region in the west of the country.
And, as Matijas Jon says: "China, which surprisingly joined the arms deal, also continues to supply weapons to Sudan."
In Myanmar, the military has acquired weapons and military equipment worth at least US$2021 billion since taking power in February XNUMX. Most of these weapons were imported from China.
Only half of the states issue reports
According to Ion, many signatory states have not followed through on other promises in the treaty, such as that they should transparently report on approved and completed arms transactions.
"Slightly more than half of the states submit their reports regularly. The rest we have to painstakingly investigate, which is a big problem because arms transactions are often kept secret,” says John.
In Germany, too, the Government's report on the export of weapons was met with harsh criticism. The Ministry of Economy has published the balance of approved arms exports for the first six months of this year.
Therefore, the export of weapons and military equipment worth around 7,6 billion euros is permitted. Almost two-thirds (4,9 billion euros) went to Ukraine.
Among the countries that imported German weapons this year are Saudi Arabia (132 million euros), Qatar (100 million euros) and the United Arab Emirates (51 million euros).
Despite this, Jon believes that all German governments since the signing of the ATT have wanted and supported the agreement. "Of course, Germany supports other countries in introducing a control system. But that doesn't mean that Germany doesn't export weapons that there are concerns about contributing to human rights violations."
The contract remains a good foundation
However, according to the Amnesty expert, the ATT is still a good foundation for raising public awareness of what is legal and what is unregulated arms trade.
For other agreements that are created under the roof of the United Nations, you need to be patient and wait for those agreements to truly take root, says Jon.
He believes that the ATT should necessarily be supplemented by the introduction of penalties in case of non-compliance. However, this segment is still lacking.
