Country Watch
to “foster peace and security by putting a stop to destabilizing arms flows to conflict regions”. The ATT also aims to prevent human-rights violators from being supplied arms, and it will keep war- lords, pirates, and gangs from obtaining arms. The international conventional-weapons industry is a $70 billion USD industry. So far, 113 member states have signed the treaty and seven have rati- fied it.
The ATT does not have a specific enforcement mechanism and its impact will not be clear until all the countries that signed it ratify it. However, proponents of the treaty point to the fact that it would require manufacturers to make their infor- mation public and to consider how potential cus- tomers might use their weapons.
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The ATT requires manufacturers to state whether their weapons will be used to break humanitar- ian law, provoke genocide, aid organized crime, or threaten women and children. It also requires countries to prevent congenital weapons from getting into the black market. A 2011 study com- missioned by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees stated that more than half a million people die as a result of armed violence every year and many of these cases are affected by the immense availability of weapons.
On September 25, 2013, the United States, through Secretary of State John Kerry, signed the ATT. The U.S. is the world’s number one arms exporter. The U.S. alone is responsible for 70 percent of the global trade in arms. John Kerry stated that signing the treaty would only minimal- ly affect U.S. manufacturers of arms exports be- cause of the strict export laws that are already in place in the country. The treaty has not yet been ratified in the U.S. and still needs to be presented to the Senate.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has been a strong opponent of the treaty. NRA claims that the ATT undermines American sovereignty and violates the Second Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution, which guarantees the right to bear arms. The likelihood of the U.S. Senate ratifying such a treaty may be slim with the powerful gun lobby in the Capital. However, many speculate that President Obama might bypass the Senate and implement the treaty as an executive order. The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Bel- gium, and Canada were some of the other coun- tries that voted in favor of the treaty. State parties to the treaty can seek assistance to implement the ATT through the United Nations.
* Submitted by Saiena Shafiezadeh
Indonesian Chief Justice Removed Following Corruption Investigation
The Constitutional Court of Indonesia has officially removed now-former Chief Justice Akil Mochtar from the bench, following a recent development from an internal investigation of Mochtar’s al- leged involvement in bribery. The Court’s ethics committee cited numerous judicial code of con- duct violations, many of which were unrelated to the bribery allegations, as the reason for his removal. Indonesia’s anti-graft agencies are cur- rently investigating the extent of the bribery al- legations. Mochtar refused to participate in the ethics committee investigation, and has claimed his innocence.
Mochtar was arrested in October 2013, at his Ja- karta, Indonesia residence, after officials of Indo- nesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (the “KPK”) caught Mochtar accepting money from a lawmaker and a businessman. Officials claim that Mochtar accepted the money in exchange for rigging the results of a disputed regional elec- tion in Indonesia’s Banten province. A search of Mochtar’s home yielded 3 billion rupiah (approxi- mately $260,000 USD), which investigators be- lieve is linked to an election in Borneo. Several of the six other officials arrested in connection to the scandal are associated with or have ties to the Golkar party. Mochtar served in Indone-
ILSA Quarterly » volume 22 » issue 2 » December 2013
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