How Joining The Arms Trade Treaty Can Help Advance Development Goals

The UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), in force since December 2014, is a landmark arms control achievement and one with potentially remarkable implications across policy areas. One of the most promising is its possible wider impact on development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This paper analyses the benefits that countries can draw from joining the ATT in terms of reducing the negative consequences of armed violence and promoting sustainable development. It highlights the treaty's potential and limitations across policy areas and in cases like Syria, where hypothetically it could have made some difference by affecting countries' arms transfer decisions, but where it still would not have been able to prevent all the unforeseen implications of the conflict and resulting insecurity. As the first treaty of its kind, the ATT can potentially help states to start making a significant difference in their arms exports and imports to ensure that they are compatible with development goals. For this to be achieved, the ATT needs to gain as close to universal adoption as possible and demonstrate that it can contribute to everyone's wellbeing, from supporting responsible defence capabilities to protecting vulnerable sections of society against atrocities committed with illegally or irresponsibly traded weapons. The ATT has much to offer to the development agenda, and vice versa. It is in the interest of all states to join the treaty to ensure a safer, more secure and prosperous future for all.

A report published by Amnesty International, IANSA, and Oxfam, for the Control Arms campaign. Published in association with Project Ploughshares, and Saferworld Every state has a right to self-defence, under Article 51 of the UN Charter. However, the UN Charter also requires all member states to e~promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and freedomse(tm) in order to achieve e~economic and social progress and developmente(tm) (Articles 1, 55 and 56) and e~to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the worlde(tm)s human and economic resourcese(tm) (Article 26). The countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East hold 51 percent of the worlde(tm)s heavy weapons. Excessive or inappropriate arms purchases are a drain on social and economic resources which developing countries simply cannot afford. The Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved without addressing the issue of sustainable development in all aspects of policy, including arms transfers. Both arms importers and exporters must ensure that arms transfers do not undermine sustainable development. For arms exporters, various export-control regimes already include this requirement, as does the proposed Arms Trade Treaty, but few governments fully respect these commitments. Lip service leads to arms falling into the wrong hands and the diversion of scarce resources from fighting poverty. To protect the social and economic rights of poor people, exporting governments must apply an effective and systematic methodology to assess whether proposed arms transfers will affect sustainable development. This report proposes such a methodology, and explains why, excepting legitimate security needs, arms transfers with an adverse impact on sustainable development must not go ahead.

The United Nations's groundbreaking Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which went into effect in 2014, sets legally binding standards to regulate global arms exports and reflects the growing concerns toward the significant role that small and major conventional arms play in perpetuating human rights violations, conflict, and societal instability worldwide. Many countries that once staunchly opposed shared export controls and their perceived threat to political and economic autonomy are now beginning to embrace numerous agreements, such as the ATT and the EU Code of Conduct. Jennifer L. Erickson explores the reasons top arms-exporting democracies have put aside past sovereignty, security, and economic worries in favor of humanitarian arms transfer controls, and she follows the early effects of this about-face on export practice. She begins with a brief history of failed arms export control initiatives and then tracks arms transfer trends over time. Pinpointing the normative shifts in the 1990s that put humanitarian arms control on the table, she reveals that these states committed to these policies out of concern for their international reputations. She also highlights how arms trade scandals threaten domestic reputations and thus help improve compliance. Using statistical data and interviews conducted in France, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Erickson challenges existing IR theories of state behavior while providing insight into the role of reputation as a social mechanism and the importance of government transparency and accountability in generating compliance with new norms and rules.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

This book presents an overview of the key debates that took place during the Economic and Social Council meetings at the 2007 High-level Segment, at which ECOSOC organized its first biennial Development Cooperation Forum. The discussions also revolved around the theme of the second Annual Ministerial Review, "Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to sustainable development."--P. 4 of cover.

The United Nations Arms Trade Treaty became binding international law in late 2014, and although the text of the treaty is a relatively concise framework for assessing whether to authorize or deny proposed conventional weapons transfers by States Parties, there exists controversy as to the meaning of certain key provisions. Furthermore, the treaty requires a national regulatory body to authorize proposed transfers of conventional weapons covered by the treaty, but does not detail how such a body should be established and how it should effectively function. The Arms Trade Treaty: A Commentary explains in detail each of the treaty provisions, the parameters for prohibitions or the denial of transfers, international cooperation and assistance, and implementation obligations and mechanisms. As states ratify and implement the Treaty over the next few years, the commentary provides invaluable guidance to government officials, commentators, and scholars on the meaning of its contentious provisions. This volume describes in detail which weapons are covered by the treaty and explains the different forms of transfer that the Arms Trade Treaty regulates. It covers international human rights, trade, disarmament, humanitarian law, criminal law, and state-to-state use of force, as well as the application of the treaty to non-state actors.

What explains China's response to intervention at the UN Security Council? China and Intervention at the UN Security Council argues that status is an overlooked determinant in understanding its decisions, even in the apex cases that are shadowed by a public discourse calling for foreign-imposed regime change in Sudan, Libya, and Syria. It posits that China reconciles its status dilemma as it weighs decisions to intervene: seeking recognition from both its intervention peer groups of great powers and developing states. Understanding the impact and scope conditions of status answers why China has taken certain positions regarding intervention and how these positions were justified. Foreign policy behavior that complies with status, and related social factors like self-image and identity, means that China can select policy options bearing material costs. China and Intervention at the UN Security Council offers a rich study of Chinese foreign policy, going beyond works available in breadth and in depth. It draws on an extensive collection of data, including over two hundred interviews with UN officials and Chinese foreign policy elites, participant observation at UN Headquarters, and a dataset of Chinese-language analysis regarding foreign-imposed regime change and intervention. The book concludes with new perspectives on the malleability of China's core interests, insights about the application of status for cooperation and the implications of the status dilemma for rising powers.

This book gives an overview of the key debates that took place during the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) meetings on the theme of the High-Level Segment of 2005, "Achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, as well as implementing the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits: progress made, challenges and opportunities". This publication also includes the Secretary-General's report as well as the President of ECOSOC's Summary on the theme of the ECOSOC High-Level Segment for 2005.

This book provides a unique and comprehensive commentary on the Arms Trade Treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013, with several contributors having direct involvement in the negotation of the Treaty.

Disarmament is integral to the safeguarding and promotion of security, development, and human rights. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year on disarmament operations, yet no comprehensive guide exists to explain clearly the international rules governing disarmament. This book seeks to fill that gap. It describes the international legal rules that govern disarmament and the operational, political, and technical considerations that govern their implementation. This book aims to support compliance, implementation, and further development of international disarmament law. Traditionally, disarmament focused on weapons of mass destruction. This remains a critically important area of work. In recent decades, the scope of disarmament has broadened to encompass also conventional weapons, including through the adoption of rules and regulations to govern arms transfers and measures to eliminate specific munitions from stockpiles and to destroy explosive remnants of war. There have also been four "generations" of programmes to address small arms and light weapons at national or sub-national level through disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR) programmes during and following the end of armed conflict. While an internationally accepted definition of disarmament does not yet exist, it is widely agreed that disarmament encompasses or interrelates with prohibitions and restrictions on the development, production, stockpiling, testing, and transfer of weapons and on their destruction. In addition to clarifying these elements, chapters of this guide will also consider the relationship between disarmament and the law of armed conflict, and with the United Nations Security Council, human security, public health, and non-state actors.