Few people think the UK should sell arms to countries in conflict or to regimes that abuse human rights, but this is the reality of UK arms export policy. The nature and situation of the buyer does not appear to be a concern to UK policymakers and few arms export applications are refused. The policy around arms is, first and foremost, to sell them.
These pages provide information on UK arms exports and promotion to countries that are judged to be of concern using some common sense indicators. These cover:
Conflict: is the country in a major armed conflict, as assessed by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's 2011 Yearbook and the Heidelberg Institute's Conflict Barometer?
Human rights: is it listed as a "major country of concern" by the UK Foreign Office in its Annual Report on Human Rights?
Corruption - is it in the bottom 50 countries of Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index?
Democracy: is it an Authoritarian Regime as assessed by the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index?
Development: is it categorised as having Low Human Development by the UN Development Programme's Human Development Report?
If any of these apply AND the country was sold arms by the UK in 2010, then data on the indicators, UK arms export licences, and arms promotion by UK Trade & Investment is provided.
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