UN's big five facilitate arms transfers to rights violators

The five permanent members of the Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - are accused of facilitating the transport of conventional weapons and cluster munitions to countries where they could be used to commit human rights violations and war crimes. The pointed accusations come from the London-based Amnesty International (AI) which singles out recent arms shipments by transport companies and airlines registered in the five nations. These weapons shipments "pose a substantial risk of being used to facilitate serious violations of international human rights…" says a new AI report released Monday. Brian Wood, AI's arms control manager, says "lax controls on arms shippers and flyers who increasingly move conventional arms around the world are not confined to jurisdictions with weak arms export and import laws". He said to save lives and protect human rights, the Arms Trade Treaty, currently under negotiation at the United Nations, must address the role of transporters and other intermediaries in the arms supply chains - not just specify what states' export and import licensing procedures should be. Dr. Natalie J. Goldring, a senior fellow with the Center for Peace and Security Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, told IPS although U.S. President Barack Obama has begun to reverse the damage from policies on arms transfers by the administration of former President George W. Bush, "much more needs to be done". The U.S. government claims to have stronger standards for arms transfers than other countries, she said. But, she explained, "While this may be true on paper, in reality, the United States regularly transfers weapons to countries that its own State Department lists as violating human rights standards."