RCW delivers statements to Arms Trade Treaty meetings

On 17 February 2023, during a meeting of the preparatory process for the Ninth Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty in Geneva, Reaching Critical Will's programme associate Laura Varella delivered two statements on behalf of WILPF highlighting the human rights due diligence obligations of weapons companies and calling for meaningful discussions on arms transfers that are causing harm.

On the arms industry, WILPF recommended states discuss their responsibilities in preventing and sanctioning harmful activities conducted by private actors and require arms companies to abide by their corporate responsibility to respect human rights.

On the #ArmsTreaty program of work, WILPF lamented the lack of discussion about human rights and IHL violations from the arms trade and urged states parties to create space to raise these concerns. As RCW’s former programme manager Allison Pytlak has said, “As turning a blind eye becomes standard practice in #ArmsTreaty meetings, the original aspirations that drove the Treaty’s process—and are embedded in its text—become farcical and erode the instrument’s credibility.”