抄録
This article asks whether the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) can achieve its purpose of increasing transparency in the international arms trade. After introducing the concepts of intergovernmental and public transparency in international arms transfers, the article provides examples of key transparency instruments with a focus on United Nations Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA). The article reviews ATT annual reports submitted during 2016-18, which provide information on international transfers of conventional arms that took place during 2015-17 in comparison to UNROCA submissions for this period. The article concludes that the ATT has the potential to increase the number of States that make information on their arms transfers publicly available, especially if States Parties take advantage of the opportunities for capacity building that could be provided via the ATT voluntary trust fund (VTF). Yet there are worrying signs that several ATT States Parties are providing less detailed information in their ATT reports than they used to provide for UNROCA. Therefore, States Parties and non-governmental organizations need to remain vigilant and highlight backsliding in reporting before obfuscation of information becomes a ‘norm’ in transparency in international transfers of conventional arms.
