US bolsters human rights criteria for arms sales
The arms transfer policy takes into account how US weapons sales could be used to commit rights abuses.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has revamped its arms export policy to include new criteria it says will reduce the risk that US weapons sold overseas will be used to commit human rights abuses.
Under the revised US Conventional Arms Transfer Policy released Thursday, a weapon transfer or sale cannot be approved if the US government assesses the recipient would “more likely than not” use the arms to commit or facilitate acts including genocide, crimes against humanity, breaches of the Geneva Conventions or other serious violations of international law.
It’s a lower threshold for denying sales than under the previous policy, which required the government to have “actual knowledge” that such acts would be committed — a standard that arms experts say was nearly impossible to meet. In 2018, former President Donald Trump announced changes to the arms transfer policy that critics said further prioritized defense contractors over human rights considerations.
Seth Binder, the director of advocacy at the Project on Middle East Democracy, called the newly released language on human rights a significant improvement to both the Trump and Obama administrations’ policies.
