Pupils show up unregulated arms trade on TV

School pupil Maddy Fry talks about her school's involvement in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary on the arms trade.

Send one of our Control Arms e-cards - click on 'Stuff' at the top of the page. Roger Berry, the head of the Quadripartite Committee on Arms Control

My school, Lord Williams’s in Thame, Oxfordshire, was one of two involved in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary with Mark Thomas, highlighting the dangers of an unregulated arms trade. The point of using school kids was to prove how easily anyone in Britain can buy and sell certain weapons without government regulation. As part of the project, my school’s Amnesty International group had to set up a brokering company - in order to see if we could get hold of implements of torture - and then bring our findings before government officials.

Needless to say, it was an eye-opener. During meetings with Roger Berry, the head of the Quadripartite Committee on Arms Control and a Labour backbencher, the full extent of the bureaucracy surrounding the UK’s policy on arms exports to foreign countries became painfully clear. Although there is an official list containing all the items that are classified as weapons of torture by the UK government (and are therefore forbidden to be exported by brokers, or else require a licence), it contains glaring loopholes.

For example, small or light arms are responsible for the bulk of the worst violent crimes, human rights violations and civilian abuses in the developing world, yet are not included as items which cannot be brokered via the UK. This is mainly due to their being no binding international laws forbidding the sale of small arms.

It is also within a broker’s right to sell handcuffs and wolf sticks (spiked batons) to any particular regime, unlicensed and without being tracked, so there is no guarantee they are not used in situations of abuse or torture. The same goes for thumb cuffs, which our small company managed to physically lay its hands on. All this presents a worrying challenge for arms control advocates – how to bring about international agreements that cut through the levels of red tape within America, Britain, France, China and Russia.

The Control Arms campaign has had definite successes, such as pushing for the expansion of the international Arms Trade Treaty to include countries such as Colombia and Sierra Leone, as well Jack Straw’s pledges of support on behalf of the UK, the second biggest arms exporter in the world. But there is the overwhelming feeling that a lot of these pledges and promises are just that – pledges and promises, not actions. Politicians love to make promises – keeping them is another thing entirely.

I will continue to support Control Arms but, as well as a giant petition, the campaign needs to make our elected officials more aware that campaigners know of the existence of loopholes within the legislation, and that any international treaties will have to involve a firm commitment to closing these loopholes. The impetus for change is there – as demonstrated by the 920,000 people who have pledged their commitment to control arms - but for there to be any lasting agreements, a lot more needs to be done this year.

After School Arms Club: Monday 3 April, 8.00 pm. Channel 4.