PRESS RELEASE

11 June 1997

Code of Conduct Victory in US House of Representatives Echoes International Calls for Arms Restraint 

Late yesterday, the US House of Representatives adopted the Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers as an amendment to the State Department FY 1998 Authorization Bill. Passage of the Code, championed by Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) signals growing bipartisan support for restraining US conventional weapons transfers. The bill requires the United States to certify that a recipient country respects human rights, promotes democracy, participates in the UN Register of Conventional Arms, and is not engaged in acts of armed aggression.

According to Susannah Dyer, an analyst with the British American Security Information Council (BASIC), "passage of the Code in the House sends a strong message to the Clinton Administration that the United States must seize this opportunity to work in concert with its allies to stop weapons transfers to human rights abusers and to regions of conflict. The Code will also help prevent the 'weapons boomerang' we saw in Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia and Rwanda where European and American troops faced weapons supplied by their own governments."

The House victory follows an announcement in London earlier this week reiterating the British Government's strong support for a similar Code of Conduct in the European Union. On Monday at a seminar sponsored by BASIC and Saferworld, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Tony Lloyd announced that the United Kingdom is committed to adopting stricter standards at both the national and European levels. According to BASIC Analyst Geraldine O'Callaghan, "A more principled approach to arms transfers is long overdue; now both the US and UK are saying that they have the political will necessary to take on that responsibility. Enactment of a US code would clearly strengthen the UK 's position when negotiating for an EU Code during Britain's EU presidency in 1998." As the United States and Europe together account for 80 percent of conventional weapons sales each year, the parallel US and EU codes would have a far-reaching effect on the global weapons trade.

An international initiative is also underway to bridge the national and regional efforts. A group of more than a dozen Nobel Peace laureates – including Oscar Arias, the Dalai Lama, Rigoberta Menchú, Lech Walesa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Elie Wiesel – is leading the effort. Seven of the Nobel laureates gathered in New York on 29 May and called on all supplier and recipient countries to adopt an International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers. The initiative has also been endorsed by President Jimmy Carter and President Mikhail Gorbachev.

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