Our January 2024 meeting kicked off with guest speaker Oliver Feeley-Sprague. Oliver is Amnesty International UK's Programme Director for its work on arms controls and policing.  His talk covered a number of areas including Arms Control, torture and also Amnesty’s 'Protect the Protest' campaign in the UK and other countries. Oliver quoted a 'Golden Rule' within the Human Rights framework that if there is a substantial/clear/foreseeable risk of misuse then a state should not authorise supplies of equipment. To that end, Amnesty has been a significant part of the steady progress on inhibiting the UK Arms trade including:

• In 1997, the UK government banning trade in torture equipment
• In 2006, an extension of the above to UK companies operating abroad (including marketing and promoting)
• In 2016, the EU introduced regulation on equipment used for torture and the death penalty

It is now hoped that a UN Treaty building on the EU Treaty will be passed in 2024.