A/HRC/35/8 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 32/12, the Human Rights Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to prepare a report on the impact of arms transfers on the enjoyment of human rights in order to provide States and other relevant stakeholders with elements to assess the relationship between arms transfers and human rights law that may guide them to strengthen efforts to effectively protect human rights.1 2. In preparing the report, OHCHR sought input from Member States, international and regional organizations, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations.2 In addition to containing information received from these entities, the report draws on a diverse range of public sources, including from United Nations human rights mechanisms and reports by scholars, practitioners and civil society organizations. 3. In the report, OHCHR first highlights some key aspects of the impact of arms transfers, including the potential or actual use of transferred arms, on the enjoyment of human rights before setting out the relevant international and regional law framework. It then suggests elements that may be used by States and other stakeholders to assess the relationship between arms transfers and human rights, including in the context of the human rights risk assessments that should be carried out pursuant to article 7 of the Arms Trade Treaty and regional arms transfer instruments. II. Impact of arms transfers on the enjoyment of human rights 4. In resolution 32/12, the terms “arms” and “transfer” are used without qualification. 3 In paragraph 1 of the resolution, the Council expressed deep concern that arms transfers, particularly those that are illicit or unregulated, may seriously undermine the human rights of individuals. 5. Arms transfers and the potential or actual use of transferred arms may have a direct or indirect, positive or negative, impact on the enjoyment of human rights. In a positive sense, States may acquire and/or deploy arms in the discharge of their responsibility to protect individuals in their jurisdictions and establish or re-establish peace and security. 4 1 2 3 4 2 See also Human Rights Council resolutions 24/25, 26/16 and 29/10. Contributions were received from Albania, Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Madagascar, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Switzerland. Contributions were also received from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain, Amnesty International, Child Soldiers International, Conectas Human Rights, Control Arms, the Groupe de recherche et d’information sur la paix et la sécurité, the Omega Research Foundation, the Romanian Institute for Human Rights, Saferworld, the Small Arms Survey, Terre des Hommes/Kindernothilfe/Brot für die Welt, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and Hiran Catuninho Azevedo. All contributions will be made available on the OHCHR website. Conventional arms include hand grenades and manually emplaced anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines; law enforcement weaponry that fire lethal ammunition and, for instance, riot launchers and related ammunition of all kinds, including tear gas grenades and cartridge-launched projectiles, kinetic-impact projectiles, projectile electrical weapons, directed energy weapons, shotgun-fired birdshot and buckshot, and water cannons and other riot control-type vehicles; and other types of conventional means of warfare, such as flamethrowers, directed energy weapons and bayonets. Nonconventional arms are those for which the transfer is prohibited by the 1968 Treaty on the NonProliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction and the 1992 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction. “Transfer” generally covers the export, import, sale, lease or loan of arms from the jurisdiction and/or control of one State to that of another. See also the contributions of El Salvador and Sweden.