Denmark to develop code of conduct for arms transporters

This week the United Nations (UN) revived talks on a long-awaited Arms Trade Treaty. While Denmark has been a staunch supporter of the treaty from the start, Denmark’s Minster of Foreign Affairs, Villy Søvndal, acknowledges that the treaty lacks any reference to the role of industry in the arms trade.

As a result, the Danish government is developing a Voluntary Code of Conduct for Danish transportation companies, a unique initiative that will help address the private sector gap and prevent potential adverse human rights impacts by Danish shipping companies operating in the arms trade.

Negotiations stalled

UN treaty negotiations first began in July 2012 when UN Member States came together to address the lack of a global framework regulating the trade in conventional arms. The treaty would require States Parties to assess the risk of any individual arms trade exacerbating conflict or of gravely violating international humanitarian and human rights law.

Negotiations were stalled, however, when the United States and Russia declared they needed more time to address significant issues before the scheduled end of negotiations, thereby postponing the process until now.

To date, there are more laws governing the international trade of bananas and coffee than of arms, despite the fact that 1,500 people are killed daily from armed violence and six out of 10 human rights abuses involve light weapons.

Noting the urgency to address this lethal legal gap, Villy Søvndal’s message to the United Nations at the start of negotiations this week was clear: after almost six years of working on the treaty, the groundwork has been done, and failure to adopt the treaty now is not an option. “Let us finish the job” and adopt the treaty, he stated. The Minister has pledged 1.6 million dollars to assist developing nations in meeting their obligations under the treaty.

Shipping companies & the arms trade

In an article in the Danish newspaper Berlingske on March 18th, the Foreign Affairs Minister was joined by the Deputy Director of the Danish Ship-owners Association, Jan Fritz Hansen, and the Secretary-General of Amnesty International Denmark, Lars Normann Jørgensen, in their support for the treaty. However, noting the absence in the treaty of any reference to the private sector role in the arms trade, they highlighted that although the treaty is necessary, it does not go far enough; further efforts to address the role of companies are vital to reducing the adverse human rights impacts of trade in weapons.

The private sector dimension of the arms trade is of special concern to Denmark because shipping companies –including Danish ones—dominate the international transport in weapons. As a result, the Danish Government is in the process of developing a Voluntary Code of Conduct for Danish transportation companies to address the private sector gap in the treaty, calling upon key local stakeholders to contribute.

The Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) commends the Government’s initiative to develop a code of conduct for companies, and has been pleased to be a part in its development.

The code represents an important contribution to the implementation of the state “Duty to Protect” human rights as defined by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and will go a long way to providing practical guidance for Danish shipping companies on how to respect human rights throughout their operations, helping to reduce the negative human rights impacts of the arms trade.

UN Guiding Principles

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights—unanimously adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011— establish a “do-no-harm”-framework and provide the conceptual foundations for the division of roles and responsibilities of various actors in relation to private sector on human rights impacts.

The Guiding Principles rest on three pillars: the duty of states to protect against human rights abuses by companies both at home and abroad; the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, whereby companies must act with due diligence to avoid negative human rights impacts; and the right of victims to access remedy.