Interpreting the Arms Trade Treaty: - International Human Rights Law and Gender-Based Violence in Article 7 Risk Assessments

4 Discrimination in the form of GBV is prohibited Arms and Gender-Based Violence under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women The ATT was the first treaty to explicitly link (CEDAW). [...] 8 Interpreting “Peace and Security” The Meaning of “Peace and Security” As part of the Article 7 risk assessment, the exporting state is required to examine the potential that the arms would “contribute to or undermine peace and security.” 75 The term “peace and security” should be understood as broad in scope, both geographically and substantively: a holistic interpretation requires states to con. [...] Importantly, the term “peace and security” encompasses more than the absence of conflict or armed violence: it also includes an assessment of human welfare.80 Both the UN General Assembly81 and the Security Council82 have endorsed the idea that human welfare is an integral component of sustainable peace and security.83 This principle is rooted in the UN Charter, which refers to the need to protect. [...] In particular, the Security Council has highlighted the need for a gender-based analysis of “peace and security.” In its groundbreaking Resolution 1325, the Security Council emphasized the “importance of [women’s] equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security,”89 and the Council has further developed the concept in subsequent resolu. [...] While some elements of complicity may shed light on practical meanings of the term, too direct of a link between “facilitate” and the fault-based standard of complicity does not logically fit with the language of the Treaty and does not best serve the purpose of the Treaty to prevent instability, violence, and suffering.