The International Law of Arms Control

A group of NGOs including Amnesty International and Oxfam have started a “Control Arms Campaign” to lobby for tougher international arms control. They have issued a report today complaining about the failure of countries to abide by international arms embargoes against a variety of countries. They are also calling for an international treaty to obligate countries to codify arms embargo policies into their domestic laws (see their website here).

OK, I have to admit I don’t know much about the international law of arms control. Apparently, the U.N. Security Council has the authority to impose arms embargoes on countries under Article 41 of the U.N. Charter. There are currently 13 Security Council resolutions imposing such embargoes that all U.N. member states are supposed to comply with(see here for a table of such embargoes).

But how would an international treaty work differently than the existing system, given that states (apparently) already have an obligation to abide by Security Council arms embargoes? The draft Framework Convention on Arms Transfers would create an International Registry for arms transfers and prohibit “the use of arms that are incapable of distinguishing between combatants and civilians or are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering”. This sounds pretty good in principle, but also pretty fuzzy to me as well. Maybe I’m missing something.

Apparently, there will be a conference in June to push toward this new treaty. After the success of the landmine treaty, this treaty will no doubt get lots of support.