While the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) came into force in the midst of high hopes in the year 2014, its experience during the past one decade has not lived up to high expectations as there has been no shortage of arms and ammunition for genocidal actions, for civil wars and for crimes against humanity. Terrorists have also become very heavily armed many in places. Large-scale illicit arms markets and smugglers continue to flourish. 

A part of the reason for the well-intentioned treaty falling short of expectations is that 53 countries have not yet joined this treaty and this includes some important countries, particularly in the context of arms trade, including North Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Myanmar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. At the same time there are 26 additional countries which signed the treaty but have not ratified it. In other words, they are not bound or restrained by the provisions of the treaty. This group also includes very important countries from the perspective of arms trade—USA, Israel, UAE, Turkey, Ukraine, Angola, Rwanda and Bangladesh. Thus when some of the most important countries remain excluded, this very adversely impacts the ability of the ATT to achieve its stated objectives of stopping illicit trade in arms, and strictly regulating the legal arms trade so  that arms cannot reach highly objectionable places and in the hands of those who carry out crimes against humanity and genocidal actions.

Apart from this, other factors are also involved including the existence of very powerful and well-connected arms traffickers and smugglers and the huge money involved in this. The overall highly unjust world situation in which crimes against humanity and genocidal actions are being supported by big powers also makes it difficult to achieve the objectives of ATT. Moreover, if the goal is not just to check wrong and dangerous trade practices but also the overall very harmful arms proliferation, then ATT by itself cannot check this with its limited scope.

Due to recent increase of wars and conflicts as well as high levels of activities of terrorist and gangster groups spreading in many countries, sometimes helped by state power and hostile countries, there is increase in demand for legal weapons and even higher increase of demand for illicit weapons. The increase in conflicts has led to a big increase in the use of landmines in many places, even though campaigns had been launched to end their use. 

Although more attention is generally devoted to heavy weapons, in practice frequently even more destruction is caused by “small arms and light weapons”, a technical term (generally abbreviated to ‘small arms’) which covers revolvers, pistols, rifles, carbines, machine-guns, ammunition, shells, grenades, landmines and explosives.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said (in year 2000),

“The death toll from small arms dwarfs that of all other weapons systems and in most years greatly exceeds the toll of the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In terms of the carnage they cause, small arms, indeed, could well be described as ‘weapons of mass destruction’. Yet there is still no global non-proliferation regime to limit their spread.”

Amnesty International and Oxfam said in a report titled ‘Shattered Lives’,

“More injuries, deaths, displacements, rapes, kidnappings and acts of torture are inflicted or perpetrated with small arms than with any other type of weapon. …There are approximately 639 million small arms in the world today. Nearly 60% of small arms are in civilian hands. 8 million new weapons are produced every year. At least 16 billion units of military ammunition were produced in 2001 alone – more than 2 military bullets for every man, woman and child on planet…”

The World Report on Violence and Health (WRVH) prepared by the World Health Organisation, says,

“Firearms are an important risk factor in many types of violence, including youth and collective violence and suicide.” In this case, technological ‘improvements’ have mostly added to the destructiveness of weapons. As the WRVH says, “The ability to fire more bullets, more quickly, and with greater range and accuracy, has greatly increased the potential destructive power of such weapons.”

An AK-47 fires up to 30 rounds in less than three seconds with each bullet potentially lethal at distances exceeding one km. 

In South Africa gunshot wound account for 46% of all homicides and 16% of all violent injuries presented at hospitals. In the USA, more murders of women are committed by guns than by all other types of weapons combined. In this country over 70% of youth homicides involve the use of guns. 

According to the WRVH,

“The carrying of weapons is both an important risk behaviour and a predominantly male activity among young people of school age … In Cape Town, South Africa, 9.8% of males and 11.3 of females in secondary schools reported carrying knives to school during the previous 4 weeks. In Scotland 34% of males and 8.6% of females aged 11-16 years said that they had carried weapons at least once during their lifetime, with drug users significantly more likely than non-drug users to have done so. In the Netherlands, 21% of secondary-school pupils admitted to possessing a weapon, and 8% had actually brought weapons to school. In the US, a national survey of students in grades 9-12 found that 17.3% had carried a weapon in the previous 30 days and 6.9% had carried a weapon in the school premises.”

Guns are also very frequently used for suicides. In the United States, guns are used in approximately two-thirds of all suicides. Even in rural communities of Australia shooting is frequently used as a method of suicide. The WRVH says,

“A major factor determining whether suicidal behaviour will be fatal or not is the method chosen.”

Presumably, where guns are used, the chances of fatality are higher.

The WRVH says in its chapter on ‘collective violence’,

“The ready availability of small arms or other weapons in the general population can also heighten the risk of conflict. This is particularly problematic in places where there have previously been conflicts, and where programmes of demobilisation, decommissioning of weapons and job creation for former soldiers are inadequate or where such measures have not been established.”

In Cambodia, 36000 people have lost at least one limb after accidentally detonating a landmine – one in every 236 of the population. 6000 people were disabled in this way in a single year – 1990. Over 30 million mines were laid in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The legal trade of landmines could be curbed substantially due to a strong campaign which resulted in a treaty. The research and campaign work of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) played a very important part in the Ottawa process which led to adoption of the anti-personnel mine ban Treaty that entered into force on 1 March 1999. Later one ICRC staff member involved in this effort concluded from his experiences,

“Observing and documenting the effects of weapons does not bring about changes in belief, behaviour or law unless communicated compellingly to both policy-makers and the public.”

As Olive Kobusingye, a surgeon treating the victims of gun violence in Uganda says – it is not enough either to mop the floor or turn off the tap. In other words efforts need to be continued at both levels – to regulate the trade in arms as well to create safer conditions at community level.

The WRVH has suggested “building on recent measures to integrate the monitoring of the movement of small arms with other early-warning systems for conflict.” This report says that interventions to reduce injuries from guns include legislation on gun sales and ownership, programmes to collect and decommission illegal weapons in areas of frequent gun-related violence, programmes to demobilise militias and soldiers after conflicts, and measures to improve safe storage of weapons. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of these and other types of interventions. “This is a prime area in which multi-sector collaboration between legislative, policing and public health authorities will be important in achieving overall success.”

This Report adds,

“The global drugs trade and the global arms trade are integral to violence in both developing and industrialized countries, and come within the purview of both the national and the international levels. From the evidence provided in various parts of this report, even modest progress on either front will contribute to reducing the amount and degree of violence suffered by millions of people. To date, however – and despite their high profile in the world arena – no solutions seem to be in sight for these problems. Public health strategies could help reduce the health impacts of both in a variety of settings at the local and national levels, and should therefore be allotted a much higher profile in global-level responses.”

The idea for an Arms Trade Treaty was developed initially by 18 Noble Peace Prize laureates from over a dozen countries. This treaty stipulates that all international arms transfers should be authorised by the appropriate state authority. Secondly, governments have a responsibility to ensure that transfers do not directly violate their obligations under international law, and are not used illegally. These should not be used for breach of UN charter, or for serious violations of human rights or crimes against humanity, or adversely affect political stability and/or sustainable development.

However much more sustained work with a wider vision is needed to check the worldwide proliferation of arms and ammunition at several levels, legal as well as illegal.         

Click the share button below to email/forward this article. Follow us on Instagram and X and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost Global Research articles with proper attribution.

Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Saving Earth for Children, A Day in 2071, Planet in Peril and Man over Machine- A Path to Peace. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Hyundai Rotem shows off its K2 main battle tank in a 2022 expo in Seoul. (Shutterstock/ Flying Camera)

Global Research is a reader-funded media. We do not accept any funding from corporations or governments. Help us stay afloat. Click the image below to make a one-time or recurring donation.

Source link