State Responsibility for Aiding or Assisting International Crimes in the Context of the Arms Trade Treaty

Legal regulation of the arms trade has been slow to evolve despite the promotion after World War I of the idea that, for the sake of peace, arms exports should be limited and despite the condemnation on moral grounds of private arms traders who helped to rouse conflict. Article 26 of the United Nations Charter tasked the Security Council with initiating plans for the establishment of a system to regulate armaments in order to promote peace and security and to restrict the diversion of the world’s resources to military expenditure. The extent of this “diversion” of resources is reflected in the estimate that the total value of the global arms trade in 2013 was at least $85 billion. The United Nations’ efforts, which included the public Register of Conventional Arms and a program of action relating to the illicit trade in small arms, culminated in the adoption of the long-awaited Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) on April 2, 2013, which enters into force on December 24, 2014.