The UK’s arms transfer control regime: further action needed

A new report by the UK Parliamentary Committee on Arms Export Controls (CAEC) highlights weaknesses in the current UK system of arms transfer control while at the same time paving the way for a significant improvement in transparency on specific arms transfer licences.  Saferworld agrees with the conclusions and recommendations in the report and calls on the government to implement them in full.

The CAEC report draws lessons from the fact that in early 2011, in response to the Arab Spring, UK authorities considered it necessary to revoke 158 licences destined for countries in the Middle East and North Africa.  The CAEC notes that the UK Government’s policy is to ‘not issue licences where we judge there is a clear risk that the proposed export might provoke or prolong regional or internal conflicts, or which might be used to facilitate internal repression’, but argues that the large-scale revocations point to a systemic failure in the risk assessment conducted before licences are granted.  For example, the export of sniper rifles and ‘crowd control ammunition’ to Libya was sanctioned shortly before the Gaddafi regime ordered a crackdown on protesters.  The report calls for the UK Government to exercise greater caution when issuing arms transfer licences to countries where it has been established that serious human rights violations have taken place.

Saferworld agrees with the CAEC’s analysis, and as part of the UK NGO Working Group on Arms has proposed that the government should establish a list of countries where there is a higher risk of abuses and internal repression taking place, potentially with reference to the annual FCO Human Rights report. Some countries may appear relatively stable, but where they do so by governing through force or the threat of force they can unravel rapidly, as evidenced by recent events in the Middle East (for more on this, see the February 2012 UKWG on Arms submission to the CAEC.

While the revocation of these licences is to be welcomed as a first step, the report makes clear that there are a number of licences over which serious questions remain. According to evidence published in the CAEC report, there are extant export licences for small arms ammunition, assault rifles, sniper rifles and pistols to Bahrain and Egypt. Given the recent acts of internal repression in both states – and the utility of the listed equipment for such acts – the continuation of these licences needs to be reviewed. It also shows a glaring gap in joined up government, demonstrating how, on the one hand, the UK promotes human rights and champions an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), while simultaneously selling arms and ammunition to governments known to suppress popular movements by force.

The CAEC report also draws attention to the government’s misleading use of the phrase ‘crowd control goods’. Having previously been used to denote non-lethal equipment, the government has extended the phrase’s scope to include small arms, semi-automatic pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles and ammunition. In the committee’s words, the government’s use of the term ‘crowd control goods’ is not only misleading but ‘also profoundly disrespectful to the thousands of unarmed civilians in the Arab Spring countries who have courageously demonstrated for human rights and fundamental freedoms and have put their lives at risk in doing so’.

While Saferworld welcomes the government’s decision to declassify its answers to the committee, it should adopt the more comprehensive approach to transparent reporting taken by the committee. For example, this report publishes a list of all arms export licence revocations since 1 January 2011, providing details on the destination countries, licensed equipment, and reasons for their revocation. In contrast, government reports only state how many revocations have been concluded per country. Now that this additional information has been published in the CAEC report we look forward to such information being released by the government as a matter of course.

The UK Government should take credit for its leadership on arms transfer controls at EU level and more globally in the Arms Trade Treaty process. However, as the CAEC report demonstrates, the transition from policy to practice clearly remains incomplete. The government should take an additional step in terms of tightening national practice to further reduce the risk of UK-sourced arms being used for the purposes of internal repression and human rights abuses.

“On the one hand, the UK promotes human rights and champions an Arms Trade Treaty, while simultaneously selling arms and ammunition to governments known to suppress popular movements by force.”

Saferworld response to UK Committee on Arms Export Controls report