15 March 2013 - As the United Nations (UN) gather in New York on Monday to negotiate an international and legally-binding Arms Trade Treaty (ATT),  the EU-China-Africa Expert Working Group (EWG) on conventional arms is urging Member States to pursue a strong treaty that reflects existing international legal standards, obligations and best practice, and which addresses loopholes in the current draft text.

The members of our group have served extensively in our national police forces, in our national arms control programmes, in our militaries, in UN peacekeeping missions, in arms embargo monitoring groups and in various international security research programmes. Based on this wealth of experience, we believe that there is a clear need for an ATT.

Every day at least 1,500 individuals are killed in armed violence worldwide. In areas of severe armed conflict, whole communities are displaced, humanitarian emergencies are triggered, the livelihoods of families are destroyed, economic development is postponed and international law is frequently violated. And, as is well recognised, the costs of instability are not bound by borders in our globalised world: China, Africa and Europe are hugely divergent. But we are in this together.

The global arms trade is not the cause of such crises, but directly or indirectly related when it is poorly handled. Too often the unrestricted flow of arms to areas of armed violence pours fuel on the fire. Too often weapons end up in the wrong hands being used for the wrong reasons. Too often arms transfers are authorised without adequate assessment of the risk that they will facilitate violations of international law or be diverted into the illicit market. The globalised nature of the arms trade compounds these problems. Production, sourcing, assembly, brokering, transit and sale can all occur in different countries with their own sets of laws. These laws vary from the stringent to the ineffective or simply non-existent. 

All our nations are travellers in the same boat riding the same seas. If countries were to adopt a common set of robust and legally-binding standards they would demonstrate not only their shared responsibility for the harmful effects of the arms trade, but also their shared interest in bringing it under control. This is the aim of the ATT, and this is why we support it.

Progress has been made. The July 2012 ATT negotiations indicated that there was significant common ground between most Member States: the draft text which emerged after four weeks of discussion serves as a solid foundation on which further work can be done to build a strong treaty. Member States must use these final nine days of negotiations to complete the process. This is not a job that should or can be half-done.

Our group is aware of several loopholes within the draft text that must be addressed. For example, the Treaty has to apply to all conventional arms. But in the existing draft text, many categories of conventional arms are ignored, while controls on ammunition, without which the guns fall silent, are only partial. Elsewhere in the text ambiguous language - especially related to violations of international law - needs to be clarified. Current wording on ‘defence cooperation agreements’ being exempted from the treaty’s provisions should be removed entirely. The risk that weapons can be diverted to unauthorised end-users needs to be taken far more seriously. Additionally, the number of states required to ratify the treaty before it comes into force, now standing at 65, is too high and could result in a delay of many years before the treaty would enter into force. All of these issues must be addressed if the treaty is not to fall short of its own objectives.

As we reflect on the numerous armed conflicts being fought today, and the human suffering they are causing, it is evident that a robust ATT is overdue. We recognise that states have different opinions on various aspects of its contents and that further exchanges between states’ representatives are required. As a group of global experts we urge them to show both courage and compromise to make sure that the final treaty is effective and of the highest possible standard.

Members of the EU-China-Africa Expert Working Group (EWG)

The EU-China-Africa EWG members are: Ambassador (rtd) Ochieng Adala (Kenya), Major General (rtd) Daniel Deng Lual (South Sudan), Mr Richard Nabudere (Uganda), Major General (rtd) Zhu Chenghu (China), Professor Ouyang Liping (China), Mr Zhai Dequan (China), General (rtd) Henny van der Graaf (The Netherlands), Mr James Bevan (United Kingdom), Mr Claudio Gramizzi (Italy). Created in 2012, the mandate of the EWG is to identify and make practical policy recommendations on how the European Union, China and African governments can co-operate on matters related to conventional arms control. The views expressed here are of a personal capacity.