Kazakh Parliament ratifies Arms Trade Treaty

ASTANA. KAZINFORM At the plenary session today, Senate has passed the bill "On ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty", Kazinform correspondent reports.

Presenting the bill Deputy Minister of Defense Talgat Mukhtarov noted that the document prohibits arms transfer authorizations to states if the transfer would violate "obligations under measures adopted by the United Nations Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, in particular, arms embargoes" or under other "relevant international obligations" or if the state "has knowledge at the time of authorization that the arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes.

The Arms Trade Treaty requires all states-parties to adopt basic regulations and approval processes for the flow of weapons across international borders, establishes common international standards that must be met before arms exports are authorized, and requires annual reporting of imports and exports to a treaty secretariat. In particular, the treaty requires that states "establish and maintain a national control system, including a national control list" and "designate competent national authorities in order to have an effective and transparent national control system regulating the transfer of conventional arms."