A/HRC/35/8 28. In accordance with article 8 of the Arms Trade Treaty, the importing State “shall take measures to ensure that appropriate and relevant information is provided, upon request, pursuant to its national laws, to the exporting State to assist” it in carrying out its human rights risk assessment. When, after making the assessment, and considering available mitigating measures, the exporting State determines that there is an overriding risk of any of these negative consequences, it shall not authorize the export. Also, significantly, article 7 (7) “encourages” the exporting State to reassess an authorization if it “becomes aware of new information”. 2. Regional arms transfers instruments 29. Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP defining common rules governing the control of exports of military technology and equipment sets out the obligation of States members of the European Union to assess export licence applications against eight criteria. Criterion two requires States to respect human rights in the country of final destination and provides that: Having assessed the recipient country’s attitude towards relevant principles established by international human rights instruments, Member States shall: (a) deny an export licence if there is a clear risk that the military technology or equipment to be exported might be used for internal repression; (b) exercise special caution and vigilance in issuing licences, on a case-by-case basis and taking account of the nature of the military technology or equipment, to countries where serious violations of human rights have been established. 30. Article 6 (3) of the Economic Community of West African States Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Their Ammunition and Other Related Materials (2006) stipulates that a “transfer shall not be authorised if the arms are destined to be used … for the violation of international humanitarian law or infringement of human and peoples’ rights and freedoms, or for the purpose of oppression”. 31. The Central African Convention for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, Their Ammunition and All Parts and Components That Can Be Used for Their Manufacture, Repair and Assembly, which came into force on 8 March 2017, has as one of its purposes to “combat armed violence and ease the human suffering caused in Central Africa by the illicit trade and trafficking in small arms and light weapons”. It provides, in article 5 (5), that authorization for the transfer of such arms “shall be denied by the competent national body if [they] are to be or might be used to commit violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law”. 47 C. Relevant guidance from human rights mechanisms 32. In paragraph 29 of its general recommendation No. 30 (2013) on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women noted that the robust and effective regulation of arms, in addition to appropriate control over the circulation of existing and often illicit conventional 47 purposes of the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty”, Academy Briefing No. 6 (August 2014), in which the authors examine, inter alia, the treatment of “seriousness” in concluding observations of United Nations treaty bodies (pp. 27-30). See also section 3.2.6 of the user’s guide to Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP defining common rules governing the control of exports of military technology and equipment (2009), available from http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST10858-2015-INIT/en/pdf. See also the following non-binding instruments, which similarly establish human rights as a critical consideration in export decisions: the Wassenaar Arrangement Best Practice Guidelines for Exports of Small Arms and Light Weapons (2002); the Organization of American States Model Regulations for the Control of Brokers of Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition (2003), art. 5 (1); the Code of Conduct of Central American States on the Transfer of Arms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materiel (2005), art. 1; and the Best Practice Guidelines for the Implementation of the Nairobi Declaration and the Nairobi Protocol on Small Arms and Light Weapons (2005). 9