[Law Clinic] Arms trafficking and human rights
Published 18 March 2025
Photo by Franklin Peña Gutierrez
This week, the third edition of the international law clinic on access to justice for arms exports has been launched by the University of Amsterdam in cooperation with the Asser Institute and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The pro bono clinic will examine the relationship between the Firearms Protocol and state obligations under international human rights law.
Students working with the clinic will receive academic credit to develop a memorandum outlining the legal framework relevant to the Firearms Protocol’s implementation in accordance with human rights. Students will delve into the international rules on human rights and arms trade, including European law and legislation. In particular, the UNODC has requested the clinic to explore the link between the Firearms Protocol and human rights law obligations relating to risk mitigation and the prevention of downstream damage in the context of arms flows.
Human rights and the Firearms Protocol
The Firearms Protocol is the only legally binding instrument designed to counter the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms at the global level. It provides a framework for states to control and regulate illicit arms and arms flows, prevent their diversion into the illegal market, and facilitate the investigation and prosecution of related offences without hampering legitimate transfers.
“The Firearms Protocol contains no references to human rights”, says Asser researcher León Castellanos-Jankiewicz, co-supervisor of the Law Clinic. “But this doesn’t mean that the protection of individuals and vulnerable groups is excluded from its scope. Our research will examine the obligations of states parties to the Protocol and private sector entities in light of the overarching UN human rights framework, including UN standards and norms in crime prevention, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”
The UN Global Firearms Programme
This year, the clinic’s client is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the international entity operating at the forefront of the battle against organised crime, drugs, corruption, and terrorism. Students will be working closely with the UN Global Firearms Programme to prepare their memorandum, mapping out the arguments for the tandem application of the Firearms Protocol with human rights norms. The programme was created to assist states in building adequate criminal justice systems to effectively respond to the challenges posed by organised criminality related to trafficking in firearms.
“Collaboration with civil society, including academia, is an important part of our work”, says Max Menn, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer at the UNODC Firearms Trafficking Section in Vienna. “This law clinic will enable stakeholders to better align the implementation of the Firearms Protocol with human rights benchmarks, including risk prevention and due diligence processes.”
The resulting memorandum will contribute to the work of States parties to the Firearms Protocol, non-governmental organisations and independent experts in identifying strategies for effective criminal justice responses to conflict prevention and peacebuilding. The UNODC hosts several multistakeholder forums where these exchanges are made every year, including the Constructive Dialogue on Firearms.
Meet the 2025 Law Clinic Team
The Amsterdam Law Clinics enable students to work on issues of public interest and broad social relevance on behalf of clients, giving them hands-on experience. The clinic complements existing projects such as the Fair Trials Clinic and the Business and Human Rights Clinic. These are all part of the experiential education programme of the Amsterdam Law Practice.
This year’s project follows two previous editions, where students drafted memorandums for the Office of the Legal Advisor of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, respectively. The law clinic team was competitively selected from the student body of the University of Amsterdam’s LLM programmes in Public International Law and International and Transnational Criminal Law. This year’s participants are Nina Bauer, Jasmijn Haak Wegmann, Hasika Prasad, and Rabbina Uzykhanova. The clinic co-supervisors are León Castellanos-Jankiewicz and Antonio Guzmán Mutis. Additional support is provided by Asser Institute research intern Letizia Bozzi.
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