Africa's Missing Billions - Oxfam International

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principles of customary international law. We have brought togetherthese obligations – the minimum necessary for an ATT which willreduce the human cost of armed violence – in a set of GlobalPrinciples for Arms Transfers. 121 They can be summarised in the‘golden rule’: the ATT must prohibit arms transfers if they are likelyto be used to:• Commit serious violations of international humanitarian law (the‘rules of war’);• Commit serious violations of international human rights law; or• Undermine sustainable development.Provisions that are broadly consistent with the Global Principles havebeen incorporated into the ECOWAS Convention and the BestPractice Guidelines for the implementation of the Nairobi Protocol. 122However, we have seen that the vast majority of arms used inAfrica’s conflicts originate from outside the continent, so Africanstates and arms producing states share responsibility for theirresponsible arms trade. Arms producers must take responsibility forensuring their weapons are not diverted to misuse, and African stateshave a responsibility to prevent internal diversion of these weapons.This is why a global ATT is so necessary and, to be effective, it isimportant that it comes with a mechanism to enhance transparency inarms transfer and also significant and long-term capacity-buildingsupport, to enable compliance and implementation.Preventing irresponsible arms transfersThe ATT will not prevent the responsible transfer of weapons fordefence, policing, peacekeeping, or other legitimate purposes. It willnot prevent a transfer if it is legal under the national laws of allcountries concerned, legal under international laws, and upholdscurrent best practice, particularly in ensuring that the arms are notlikely to be diverted to another user.Thus many arms transfers would not be affected. But the ATT wouldimpact on the following transfers:Irresponsible transfer to a state: Such a transfer may be irresponsibleif it was not authorised by all of the states concerned (throughimport, export, brokering, transit, or transhipment), or if the transferwas in violation of international law. For example, the transfer wouldbe prohibited if it breached an arms embargo, or if the arms werelikely to be used for serious violations of international humanitarianor human rights law.24Africa’s missing billions, IANSA, Oxfam, and Saferworld, October2007
Amnesty International’s report ‘DRC: Arming the East’ provides anextensive list of questionable arms transfers to countries involved inthe DRC war. 123 Rwanda imported millions of rounds of small armsammunition, grenades, and rocket launchers from surplus stocks inAlbania and there have been large flows of arms from Eastern Europeto the DRC transitional government and to Uganda. Until April 2005,only rebel groups within the DRC were under UN arms embargo, soit appears that these transfers did not breach any embargo. However,there is a strong possibility that at least some of these arms didultimately reach rebel groups in the DRC. The ATT would put a legalobligation on exporters to seriously investigate and consider thepossibility of diversion. It is not sufficient simply to accept an endusercertificate at face value. Under the ‘Golden Rule’, an exporterwould be in breach of the ATT if that exporter should have known of arisk of diversion or misuse.Transfer to an illegal armed group – Without authorisation by allstates with jurisdiction over the transfers, transfers to armed groupswould be illegal under the ATT.The UN Panel of Experts on the arms embargo on Somalia providesdetails of several countries alleged to have supplied arms to actors inSomalia, in breach of the arms embargo. For example, one reportrefers to at least three separate consignments containing arms andammunition from Iran, including machine guns and MANPADs. 124While the findings of the report have been contested by a number ofthe governments named, such shipments would be in violation of anexisting arms embargo, and therefore are already illegal. The ATTwould help prevent such transfers by strengthening theimplementation of UN arms embargoes, in particular by requiringthem to be incorporated into national legislation.Recirculation of weapons: Weapons cross borders in Africarelatively easily, in what is often called the ‘ant trade’. But thequantities are not always small. In the first six months of 2002, theNigerian Customs Service reported that it had intercepted small armsand ammunition worth more than $34m on their way into thecountry. Much of this had come through the border with Benin, andwas being brought into Nigeria either overland or by sea. 125The crossing of national borders is an international transfer ofweapons and the ATT would require such transfers to be broughtunder control by the countries involved. This obviously requiresinvestment to control weapons flows, such as building customs,border control, and law enforcement capabilities. Efforts to this endare already underway, and an ATT would complement this andprovide a legal framework for increased donor funding.25Africa’s missing billions, IANSA, Oxfam, and Saferworld, October2007
Page 4 and 5: abuse human rights and ignore the r
Page 6 and 7: conflict is one important factor in
Page 8 and 9: Using the definitions from the Heid
Page 10 and 11: Table 1: Selected country results f
Page 12 and 13: Table 2: Key costs to the national
Page 14 and 15: Direct costs, with a focus on medic
Page 16 and 17: example, tend to be major losers in
Page 18 and 19: Faso increased military investments
Page 20 and 21: combatants and have brought their w
Page 22 and 23: Exactly quantifying African product
Page 26 and 27: Diversion from stockpiles: As state
Page 28 and 29: Appendix: Methodology for cost toAf
Page 30 and 31: Notes1 International Action Network
Page 32 and 33: Education in Africa: $5bn/year, fro
Page 34 and 35: 65http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applicati
Page 36 and 37: 104 Amnesty International, IANSA, a
Page 38: © The International Action Network

Africa's Missing Billions - Oxfam International

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