title: Controlling the circulation of small arms in international law

authors: Hasan, Ramadansyah

abstract: International humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) have shown an influence on the conventional arms control. A series of negotiations to control the trade of small arms, in particular the diplomatic conference on the arms trade treaty in July 2012, provide some evidence of this increasing influence. The negative impact of the widespread availability of small arms on human security justifies the linking of the use of these weapons with humanitarian and human rights law. 

The Security Council arms embargo, a reactive sanction measure imposed retrospectively, the only legal mechanism restricting small arms transfers, is often ineffective in achieving its objective. What is required is preventive action. Other international mechanisms, such as the 2001 United Nations Programme of Action on small arms, the UN Register, and the 2005 International Tracing Instrument cannot be implemented effectively for several reasons, in particular, because they are not legally binding instruments. 

The contemporary principle of State responsibility obliges States to regulate the small arms trade in the interest of preventing violence and ensuring security of all peoples. This obligation extends to those within and beyond their boundaries, in other words to the global population as a whole. Therefore, a selling State should not transfer weapons to another State if it is aware that the weapons may be used by the receiving State for internationally wrongful acts which would constitute a violation of international law. States have a responsibility to act in accordance with international norms of human rights and humanitarian law. Hence, a small arms transfer to another State, including for the purpose of self-defence, should be compatible with the requirements of IHL and IHRL. 

An examination of the treaties regarding conventional weapons from the 1868 St Petersburg Declaration to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions shows the increasing reference to principles of humanitarian law and human rights law. Their influence is also evident in the regional and sub-regional instruments.  The recent adoption of the Mine Ban Convention and the Convention on Cluster Munitions was finalised outside the United Nations with a wide participation of civil society which promotes respect for human rights. This suggests that a future arms control negotiation may have to take into consideration human rights and humanitarian concerns, and can be pursued outside the United Nations framework.

text: Controlling the circulation of small arms in international law International humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) have shown an influence on the conventional arms control. A series of negotiations to control the trade of small arms, in particular the diplomatic conference on the arms trade treaty in July 2012, provide some evidence of this increasing influence. The negative impact of the widespread availability of small arms on human security justifies the linking of the use of these weapons with humanitarian and human rights law. 

The Security Council arms embargo, a reactive sanction measure imposed retrospectively, the only legal mechanism restricting small arms transfers, is often ineffective in achieving its objective. What is required is preventive action. Other international mechanisms, such as the 2001 United Nations Programme of Action on small arms, the UN Register, and the 2005 International Tracing Instrument cannot be implemented effectively for several reasons, in particular, because they are not legally binding instruments. 

The contemporary principle of State responsibility obliges States to regulate the small arms trade in the interest of preventing violence and ensuring security of all peoples. This obligation extends to those within and beyond their boundaries, in other words to the global population as a whole. Therefore, a selling State should not transfer weapons to another State if it is aware that the weapons may be used by the receiving State for internationally wrongful acts which would constitute a violation of international law. States have a responsibility to act in accordance with international norms of human rights and humanitarian law. Hence, a small arms transfer to another State, including for the purpose of self-defence, should be compatible with the requirements of IHL and IHRL. 

An examination of the treaties regarding conventional weapons from the 1868 St Petersburg Declaration to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions shows the increasing reference to principles of humanitarian law and human rights law. Their influence is also evident in the regional and sub-regional instruments.  The recent adoption of the Mine Ban Convention and the Convention on Cluster Munitions was finalised outside the United Nations with a wide participation of civil society which promotes respect for human rights. This suggests that a future arms control negotiation may have to take into consideration human rights and humanitarian concerns, and can be pursued outside the United Nations framework.

year: 2013

title: Blurring the Lines? International Humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisations and the Military use of Aid and Development in Afghanistan

authors: Jagger, Stanley Jeremy

subjects: Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

abstract: This thesis explores the theory that International Humanitarian Non-governmental Organisations (IHNGOs) have increasingly become part of the world-ordering security agenda of developed western states since the end of the Cold War. It argues that the adoption of humanitarian aid and development activities by intervening military forces in Afghanistan, criticised by IHNGOs for blurring the boundaries between humanitarian and military actors, is a symptom of, rather than the central reason for, reduced humanitarian space in Afghanistan. This study contends that the central issue is the wider integration of political, military and humanitarian action into the process of state-building as a way to pacify areas of conflict and instability that otherwise present potential security threats to the developed world. This has become even more pronounced with the aims of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) since 2001.

The merging of humanitarian aid and development with security in the pursuit of stable states has occurred as an international response to the humanitarian crises and intra-state wars since the end of the Cold War. Military involvement of this kind is typified in Afghanistan by Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) that combine security and development action. During the 1990s humanitarianism also underwent a metamorphosis as concern about the role aid could have in fuelling conflict and a desire to ameliorate the underlying causes of poverty and conflict led many aid agencies to adopt a new vision of humanitarianism that had political and social goals beyond those of just meeting the immediate needs of populations in crisis. Another feature of humanitarian interventions of the 1990s was the ambitious expectations placed upon IHNGOs and intervening military forces from the international community to manage or resolve these crises without a corresponding level of long-term political, economic and military commitment. These issues are also present in post-2001 Afghanistan where IHNGOs initially supported an international intervention and a new government which has since been faced with a growing insurgency. Consequently, involvement with state-building, governance, rights and development have placed IHNGOs at odds with the insurgents.

A case study approach is used to examine five major IHNGOs and how they fit into the context of the international state-building project in post-2001 Afghanistan. The central finding of this study is that the integration of humanitarian aid and development into state-building as a means to enhance international security has seriously compromised the claims to the principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence central to the concept of humanitarian space and consequently the security of the IHNGOs in the ongoing Afghanistan conflict.

To overcome these problems this study suggests that IHNGOs should place their humanitarian aid activity under a separate umbrella organisation that operates under the neutral, impartial and independent principles adhered to by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the organisation in this study that has managed to maintain some acceptance and dialogue with all parties to conflict.

text: Blurring the Lines? International Humanitarian Non-Governmental Organisations and the Military use of Aid and Development in Afghanistan This thesis explores the theory that International Humanitarian Non-governmental Organisations (IHNGOs) have increasingly become part of the world-ordering security agenda of developed western states since the end of the Cold War. It argues that the adoption of humanitarian aid and development activities by intervening military forces in Afghanistan, criticised by IHNGOs for blurring the boundaries between humanitarian and military actors, is a symptom of, rather than the central reason for, reduced humanitarian space in Afghanistan. This study contends that the central issue is the wider integration of political, military and humanitarian action into the process of state-building as a way to pacify areas of conflict and instability that otherwise present potential security threats to the developed world. This has become even more pronounced with the aims of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) since 2001.

The merging of humanitarian aid and development with security in the pursuit of stable states has occurred as an international response to the humanitarian crises and intra-state wars since the end of the Cold War. Military involvement of this kind is typified in Afghanistan by Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) that combine security and development action. During the 1990s humanitarianism also underwent a metamorphosis as concern about the role aid could have in fuelling conflict and a desire to ameliorate the underlying causes of poverty and conflict led many aid agencies to adopt a new vision of humanitarianism that had political and social goals beyond those of just meeting the immediate needs of populations in crisis. Another feature of humanitarian interventions of the 1990s was the ambitious expectations placed upon IHNGOs and intervening military forces from the international community to manage or resolve these crises without a corresponding level of long-term political, economic and military commitment. These issues are also present in post-2001 Afghanistan where IHNGOs initially supported an international intervention and a new government which has since been faced with a growing insurgency. Consequently, involvement with state-building, governance, rights and development have placed IHNGOs at odds with the insurgents.

A case study approach is used to examine five major IHNGOs and how they fit into the context of the international state-building project in post-2001 Afghanistan. The central finding of this study is that the integration of humanitarian aid and development into state-building as a means to enhance international security has seriously compromised the claims to the principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence central to the concept of humanitarian space and consequently the security of the IHNGOs in the ongoing Afghanistan conflict.

To overcome these problems this study suggests that IHNGOs should place their humanitarian aid activity under a separate umbrella organisation that operates under the neutral, impartial and independent principles adhered to by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the organisation in this study that has managed to maintain some acceptance and dialogue with all parties to conflict.

year: 2010

title: A newly-available resource for historians of early New Zealand: The Marist Missionary Letters (1838-54)

authors: Jennings, William

abstract: The 7000 pages of primary documents of the Lettres reçues d’Océanie constitute a vast new source for the study of the Pacific during the period 1838-54. Published in 2009 after sixteen years of transcription, the Lettres are the collected correspondence of the first French Marist missionaries to New Zealand and other Pacific islands. In the words of Pacific historian Hugh Laracy, they are ‘the single most important foundational contribution to Pacific history in its fullest extent since J. C. Beaglehole’s magisterial editions of James Cook’s Journals. About 2000 of those pages are transcripts of letters written in New Zealand that open up a fresh perspective of life before the wars of the 1860’s. This paper will locate the early French Marist Māori mission within the context of New Zealand public history before exploring how the Lettres reçues d’Océanie can complement existing views of early colonial New Zealand. To better contextualise the correspondence, it would be useful to begin with a brief background of the Marists’ presence in New Zealand.

text: A newly-available resource for historians of early New Zealand: The Marist Missionary Letters (1838-54) The 7000 pages of primary documents of the Lettres reçues d’Océanie constitute a vast new source for the study of the Pacific during the period 1838-54. Published in 2009 after sixteen years of transcription, the Lettres are the collected correspondence of the first French Marist missionaries to New Zealand and other Pacific islands. In the words of Pacific historian Hugh Laracy, they are ‘the single most important foundational contribution to Pacific history in its fullest extent since J. C. Beaglehole’s magisterial editions of James Cook’s Journals. About 2000 of those pages are transcripts of letters written in New Zealand that open up a fresh perspective of life before the wars of the 1860’s. This paper will locate the early French Marist Māori mission within the context of New Zealand public history before exploring how the Lettres reçues d’Océanie can complement existing views of early colonial New Zealand. To better contextualise the correspondence, it would be useful to begin with a brief background of the Marists’ presence in New Zealand.

year: 2012