Africa: Arms embargoes

UN arms embargoes are systematically violated and must be urgently strengthened if they are to stop weapons fueling human rights abuses, according to a report presented to the UN Security Council last week. According to the Control Arms Campaign every one of the 13 UN arms embargoes imposed in the last decade has been repeatedly violated. And despite hundreds of embargo breakers being named in UN reports, only a handful have been successfully prosecuted. This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a press release and excerpts from the new report released by the Control Arms Campaign, a joint campaign of Amnesty International, the International Action Network on Small Arms, and Oxfam International.