Arms embargoes are usually imposed too late to be effective in preventing conflict. Furthermore, the United Nations (UN) Sanctions Committees, which oversee the embargoes, have to rely on Member States to monitor and implement them. This paper, by Amnesty International, the International Action Network on Small Arms, and Oxfam, argues that arms embargoes cannot be deployed effectively by the UN to prevent illicit arms trafficking, without better national controls on international arms transfers.
International arms embargoes are systematically violated with impunity. In the last ten years there have been 13 UN arms embargoes in force, yet none has managed to stop the flow of weaponry to countries or armed groups subject to these embargoes. Despite an obligation to enforce UN arms embargoes on armed groups and forces in Africa, individuals and companies operating in at least 30 countries have been implicated in embargo busting. Only a handful of them have been successfully prosecuted.
None of the mandatory UN arms embargoes has stopped the supply of arms. Sometimes the embargoes have made it more difficult and expensive to acquire arms, but violations of UN arms embargoes appear persistent, widespread and systematic.
UN arms embargoes are imposed as a method of last resort, usually once the humanitarian and human rights situation in a particular country has already reached crisis point. As instruments for preventing conflict they have a number of specific problems, which include the following issues:
- Decisions to impose, or not to impose arms embargoes, are largely guided by political considerations. Furthermore, many states have not made violating an embargo a criminal offence in domestic law.
- Individuals behind arms networks create such a complex supply chain that any individual element can deny knowledge of deliberate attempts to violate international arms embargoes.
- State officials often cover up arms transfers when providing information to the UN investigators because of narrow political interests, corruption or ignorance.
- UN peacekeepers collecting weapons belonging to embargoed entities are not adequately trained to record markings, while UN missions do not have the means to monitor all ports of entry in embargoed zones.
- Charter aircraft and cargo firms that are repeatedly used to break UN arms embargoes are often not grounded or closed down. When they are, they simply change their name and continue trading.
The authority of the United Nations is greatly undermined by persistent violations of UN Security Council arms embargoes. In order to improve the effectiveness of arms embargoes the following issues should be addressed:
- The Security Council should continue to improve the design of arms embargoes.
- The UN and Member States should address the issue of impunity of embargo violators.
- Member States should make an international Arms Trade Treaty. This would be a framework of controls based on a common set of criteria for international arms transfers that is consistent with international law.
- The UN Sanctions Committees, the UN Secretariat and UN investigative teams require better support to improve verification methods, techniques and procedures, especially from Member States close to the embargoed entity.
