Dangerous and Deadly Arms Trade

Hundreds of thousands of people are killed, injured, raped, repressed and forced to flee their homes every year as a result of the international arms trade. Families are torn apart. Livelihoods and lives are destroyed. Armed conflicts destroy social and economic infrastructure, breed corruption and divert public finances, denying the poor access to health care, water, food, shelter and education, increasing poverty and causing yet more deaths.

For decades there has been a global treaty on the import, export and transfer of dinosaur bones yet there is no global treaty to strictly control the deadly trade in conventional arms. Revolvers, rifles, machine guns, bullets, hand grenades, missiles, rockets, armoured vehicles and other weapons and arms can be traded between governments, arms dealers and armed groups with few restrictions. Unscrupulous governments allow almost unlimited amounts of arms to be supplied to those flagrantly violating human rights and destroying lives.

Regulation at the country level has failed to adapt to an increasingly globalized trade – components are sourced from across the world, and production and assembly take place in different countries. It’s time for all governments to commit to securing an international Arms Trade Treaty. Read more