Are Legal and Human Rights Challenges at a Tipping Point in Changing the Arms Trade?

In the months since Hamas’ October 7 attacks, attention to the arms trade has come from a number of different angles as concerns mounted about Israel’s response and findings of a “plausible” risk of genocide. This has included a wave of strategic litigation in national courts, legal proceedings at international bodies such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as other interventions before non-judicial bodies, including pressure on industry via business and human rights initiatives, divestment campaigns, direct-actions, and protests (for example on college campuses and at manufacturers’ premises), and other efforts. Some of these efforts are unprecedented in themselves, but taken together does this mark a turning/tipping point after which legal and human rights considerations might offer more pathways and prospects for restraining the arms trade?

Join a panel of experts as they discuss earlier developments in their field of practice, whether all these different strands of activity are together painting a larger picture, what this moment might mean, and what we might expect in the future.

Panelists

• Chloé Bailey, Senior Legal Advisor, Business and Human Rights, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)
• Michel Paradis, Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School; Partner, Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
• Patrick Wilcken, Researcher/Adviser on Military, Security and Policing Issues at Amnesty’s International Secretariat
• Roy Isbister, Head of Arms Unit, Saferworld (moderator)

This event is co-organized by the Forum on the Arms Trade and Arms Trade Litigation Monitor.