Paper details
| Paper authors | Jillian Rafferty |
| In panel on | The Forgotten Affected Population: Recognizing and Accounting for Crimes against Persons with Disabilities |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
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Abstract
The 2013 Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) prohibits exports of small arms and light weapons (SALW) where the exporting State knows those weapons will be used to commit war crimes or crimes against humanity.[1] It also requires States parties to assess the “risk” that exported SALW could be “used to commit or facilitate” “serious violations of international human rights law,” “serious violations of international humanitarian law,” and offenses established under international law relating to terrorism and to transnational organized crime, and to deny exports where such risks exist and cannot be mitigated.[2] In the dozen years since the ATT’s adoption, civil society and the ATT Conference of States Parties have carried out extensive work on the risk assessment process and States’ obligations under it. But very little of that work to interpret and implement the ATT’s obligations has addressed how the kinds of SALW-linked abuses the ATT aims to prevent affect persons with disabilities. This paper aims to fill that gap, carrying out a disability-sensitive reading of the ATT’s Article 6 and Article 7 obligations. This will a discussion of how the ATT relates to and is informed by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and of how SALW enable and facilitate war crimes, crimes against humanity, serious violations of international human rights law, and serious violations of international humanitarian law.
[1] 2013 Arms Trade Treaty, art. 6.
[2] 2013 Arms Trade Treaty, art. 7.
