Amnesty International USA

[A] RECALLING that in the early 1980’s Amnesty International recognized that unrestrained transfers of military and security equipment and training were contributing substantially to human rights violations around the world, and decided to develop a program on Military, Security, and Police Transfers (MSP) as an integral part of AI work;

[B] BEARING IN MIND that the United States overwhelmingly dominates the global manufacture and transfer of weapons, as well as the provision of military training, to armed military and public security forces of the world, and that this aid has been increasing in recent years;

[C] RECOGNIZING that MSP issues are integrally related to a broad array of AIUSA’s work, including current country work on such areas as Darfur, DRC, Haiti, and Colombia as well as recent priority campaigns—including SVAW (especially in regard to the large proportion of intimate partner violence that involves firearms) and the global war on terror (given that the United States has increased military aid programs to many countries it views as allies, despite their poor human rights records);

[D] RECOGNIZING that over the past three years the volunteer MSP working group has built up an e-network of more than 11,000 AIUSA supporters today;

[E] MINDFUL of the global ‘Control Arms’ campaign that AI launched with Oxfam International and the 700-member International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) in 2003, which seeks the negotiation of strict principles, rooted in existing norms and agreements on human rights and humanitarian law, to govern the global arms trade;

[F] AWARE that technical and political expertise is crucial to campaign effectively against arms trade and military aid transactions, given the scope of the hardware involved and the great impetus such deals receive from industrial and foreign lobbies and their congressional allies;

[G] AWARE that AIUSA’s MSP work for more than a decade has been led by a volunteer Working Group with part-time support of committed staff and recognizing that existing AIUSA staff plans have not included a permanent (non-temporary) staff liaison to the MSP Working Group;

(H) Mindful of the Strategic Plan adopted by the AIUSA Board in January 2007;

[I] THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that AIUSA reaffirms its commitment to an ongoing program of work in the area of MSP transfers as an integral part of the work undertaken by the international movement;

[J] BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that as AIUSA considers staffing plans and support arrangements for steering groups and other volunteer leadership groups in the context of implementing the new strategic plan, that it will accord the same consideration to MSP as to other areas of work that are at present supported by permanent staff; and

[K] BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all efforts will be made to provide, and reflect in the AIUSA staff plan, professional staff support to monitor, advocate and mobilize membership on MSP issues as well as coordinate with the International Secretariat and other national sections on joint global actions to oppose the transfer of weapons and provision of military training that are likely to be used to commit human rights violations within AI’s mission.