A Humanitarian Assessment of the Arms Trade Treaty: Reducing the Proliferation of Conventional Weapons to Civilian Combatants

The Arms Trade Treaty, enacted in 2013, aims to decrease human suffering by limiting the international supply of conventional weapons. However, this treaty has not created a positive obligation on states to respect international humanitarian law due to competing interests, lack of enforcement, and ambiguity. This paper analyzes the proliferation of violence resulting in violations of both international humanitarian law and international human rights law attributable to the availability of conventional weapons supplied through the international arms trade. By analyzing the cases of Saudi-Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan, this paper highlights the urgency of creating more legal obligations on States to stop the widespread availability of weapons. At the root of the problem is the fact that the weapons intended to provide security for the State and its civilians are being used by the very people that International Humanitarian Law seeks to protect