arms trade litigation monitor
abolishing the arms trade, centring antimilitarist movements
abolishing the arms trade, centring antimilitarist movements
as part of our antimilitarist organising with survivor communities and solidarity groups that resist the arms trade, we have co-created the Arms Trade Litigation Monitor (ATLM) together with Saferworld and with support from the International Commission of Jurists. the monitor is the first near-comprehensive observatory of legal interventions, including strategic litigation and movement lawyering, that seek to challenge, resist and remedy harms caused by arms transfers by centring survivor-led, transformative approaches to conflict accountability.
the Monitor documents and analyses legal proceedings related to the international arms trade. it includes information on international, regional and domestic laws, case summaries, original court documents (including unofficial translations), legal and policy commentary and other carefully curated resources on the state of arms transfers and Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) - based challenges against them, especially in contexts of mass and structural violence. most such proceedings pertain to Yemen, Egypt and Palestine.
community of practice
the monitor is maintained through a collaborative process with a growing community of legal practitioners and advocates involved in these legal challenges. the first convening in London in September 2019 was followed by quarterly online meetings, and some hybrid meetings around the ATLM’s launch in Brussels in April 2023 and other panel discussions co-organised by the ATLM.
as part of our commitment to a community-led justice and accountability processes for the arms trade, we are currently co-convening a bi-monthly online community space for practitioners, researchers, and activists to exchange around developments and actions to resist the arms trade and militarism more broadly.
ejc and Saferworldco-convened the current community of practice in-person in Berlin in 2024 and is currently co-organising a second in-person meeting in Fall 2025.
counter/narratives of legal struggles against the arms trade
the site is a platform for developing and disseminating counter/narratives of legal and political struggles to regulate and resist the arms trade. the monitor builds on the 2021 community-based research report ‘Domestic Accountability for International Arms Transfers: Law, Policy and Practice’ authored by its creators that exposed the ways in which the ATT-based international regulatory regime fails to prevent clearly unlawful arms transfers and hold arms-suppliers as conflict actors to account.
the limits of efforts to challenge arms-supply relationships through strategic litigation and other legal action reorient us towards resisting the laws and systems that enable militarism and repress peace movements.
Pursuing Accountability for the Arms Trade: A Primer on European and UK Laws and Mechanisms, published in December 2024 (research up to date as of March 2024), is based on this multiyear engagement with the community around the ATLM; was authored by valentina azarova and produced by the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights. the report critically examines the regulatory frameworks, judicial and non-judicial processes and practices for arms transfers in five major EU exporting countries – France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy – and in the UK, and explores past and ongoing accountability efforts, including in three case-studies of arms supplies in the context of the violence in Yemen, Libya and Palestine. it identifies advocacy opportunities and legal pathways for civil society organisations, including the need to redirect civil society efforts towards a systemic analysis of arms trade accountability, as part of the international system’s responses to and regulation of complicity relations with mass and structural violence.
we are guest-coediting the BHRJ’s Developments in the Field special issue on ‘Locating and pursuing corporate accountability for the arms sector: Possibilities, limits, and visions of justice’, including a coauthored editorial under the same title (forthcoming 2025).
***
for more information and potential collaboration and thought-partnership, email valentina azarova at valentina@emergentjusticecollective.org.
the Monitor documents and analyses legal proceedings related to the international arms trade. it includes information on international, regional and domestic laws, case summaries, original court documents (including unofficial translations), legal and policy commentary and other carefully curated resources on the state of arms transfers and Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) - based challenges against them, especially in contexts of mass and structural violence. most such proceedings pertain to Yemen, Egypt and Palestine.
community of practice
the monitor is maintained through a collaborative process with a growing community of legal practitioners and advocates involved in these legal challenges. the first convening in London in September 2019 was followed by quarterly online meetings, and some hybrid meetings around the ATLM’s launch in Brussels in April 2023 and other panel discussions co-organised by the ATLM.
as part of our commitment to a community-led justice and accountability processes for the arms trade, we are currently co-convening a bi-monthly online community space for practitioners, researchers, and activists to exchange around developments and actions to resist the arms trade and militarism more broadly.
ejc and Saferworldco-convened the current community of practice in-person in Berlin in 2024 and is currently co-organising a second in-person meeting in Fall 2025.
counter/narratives of legal struggles against the arms trade
the site is a platform for developing and disseminating counter/narratives of legal and political struggles to regulate and resist the arms trade. the monitor builds on the 2021 community-based research report ‘Domestic Accountability for International Arms Transfers: Law, Policy and Practice’ authored by its creators that exposed the ways in which the ATT-based international regulatory regime fails to prevent clearly unlawful arms transfers and hold arms-suppliers as conflict actors to account.
the limits of efforts to challenge arms-supply relationships through strategic litigation and other legal action reorient us towards resisting the laws and systems that enable militarism and repress peace movements.
Pursuing Accountability for the Arms Trade: A Primer on European and UK Laws and Mechanisms, published in December 2024 (research up to date as of March 2024), is based on this multiyear engagement with the community around the ATLM; was authored by valentina azarova and produced by the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights. the report critically examines the regulatory frameworks, judicial and non-judicial processes and practices for arms transfers in five major EU exporting countries – France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy – and in the UK, and explores past and ongoing accountability efforts, including in three case-studies of arms supplies in the context of the violence in Yemen, Libya and Palestine. it identifies advocacy opportunities and legal pathways for civil society organisations, including the need to redirect civil society efforts towards a systemic analysis of arms trade accountability, as part of the international system’s responses to and regulation of complicity relations with mass and structural violence.
we are guest-coediting the BHRJ’s Developments in the Field special issue on ‘Locating and pursuing corporate accountability for the arms sector: Possibilities, limits, and visions of justice’, including a coauthored editorial under the same title (forthcoming 2025).
***
for more information and potential collaboration and thought-partnership, email valentina azarova at valentina@emergentjusticecollective.org.