NEW YORK: Many governments are still fuelling conflicts around the world and breaking the rules of the landmark Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) by supplying weapons to known human rights violators, Amnesty International said on Friday.

“Earlier this year the Israeli military, which receives generous arms supplies from the USA and EU states, shot dead at least 140 Palestinian protesters and injured thousands more in Gaza. Meanwhile the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which enjoys the fulsome support of the UK, France, USA and others, continues to inflict devastating suffering on the Yemeni civilian population,” said Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Arms Control and Human Rights.

“The Arms Trade Treaty states clearly that arms exports are prohibited if there is a real risk of them contributing to human rights violations. States who continue to supply arms to Saudi Arabia and Israel are therefore brazenly flouting the rules.”

The ATT entered into force in 2014 after years of dedicated campaigning by Amnesty International and other NGOs. It prohibits the transfer between states of weapons, munitions and related items when it is known that they would be used for war crimes, or there is an overriding risk they could contribute to serious human rights violations.

The refusal of the UK, France, USA and others to suspend arms transfers to Saudi Arabia, despite a litany of possible war crimes carried out by the coalition it leads in Yemen, has become the emblematic case of irresponsible arms trading. There has been some progress over the past year, with a growing number of countries recognizing that arming the Saudi-led coalition could implicate them in war crimes.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2018