U.S. Bolsters Human Rights Criteria For Arms Sales, Says Will Look At Each Country 'Individually'

The Biden administration said on Monday that it will "look at each country individually" as it has revamped its arms export policy to bolster human rights criteria, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"We provide security assistance based on a number of factors. We’ve increased our focus of course on human rights... But we look at each country individually," Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Bonnie Jenkins said in response to TURAN's questions during a special online briefing organized by the State Department's Brussels Media Hub.

Under the revised U.S. Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) Policy released last week, a weapon transfer or sale cannot be approved if the Administration assesses the recipient would “more likely than not” use the arms to commit serious human right violations.

Congressman Gregory Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday issued the statement reminding that previously some U.S. arms exports have undermined U.S. foreign policy goals, resulted in human rights abuses, and in certain instances unauthorized transfers of weapons.

"The true test for this new policy framework will be in implementation," he noted. "Though the true test for this framework is in implementation, I am hopeful this update represents the first of many more meaningful steps that ensure such exports serve both our national security interests and align with our democratic values.”

When asked by TURAN whether the new policy will impact the U.S. security assistance to countries such as Azerbaijan and Georgia, given their recently deteriorating human rights records, Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins said in general the Administration takes these issues on "a case-by-case basis."

"We want to continue to strengthen the human rights aspect of our CAT policy," she emphasized. "We have a number of factors that we take into account when we are providing security assistance. One of those factors of course is human rights; we take a number of things into account as we are considering our provision of security assistance to countries."

Even after providing security assistance, Washington continues to work with countries to ensure that they are not leading to corruption or humanitarian rights violations, Amb Jenkins added.

Alex Raufoglu