The Czech Republic remains as one of the leading countries in the international weapons trade, particularly the distribution of small arms worldwide. Problematically, this includes exports to countries with highly contentious human rights records. Is this compatible with the Czech foreign policy based on the support of human rights? Are we legitimizing oppressive regimes? And can we strike a balance between protecting human rights and restricting arms trade, when often, arms are also used for defense?
These were the main topics of an event that took place on December 6th 2016 at the Cafe Trojka in Brno. Peter Tkáč (Nesehnutí, non-governmental organization) and Josef Kraus (Security analyst, Assistant at the Faculty of Social studies) discussed with the audience if whether or not necessarily we should be closely monitoring the destination of our arm exports, and to what extent the trader is responsible for human rights abuses on the ground. One thing remained undisputed - increasing transparency in arms trade should be the first step.
Current information on arms export available online.