Closed petition Impose a tax on arms companies selling weapons to clients who abuse human rights

Closed on 22 June 2016

The arms trade profits from fueling widespread killings across the globe which often result in human rights abuses. The unusually relaxed rules surrounding licensing arms to states with poor-to-horrendous human rights records have proven ineffective. Such transactions should now be heavily taxed.

Tax is "the best mechanism by which an elected government can embed the social values it represents in the economy that it is charged with managing", as Richard Murphy writes in 'The Joy of Tax'. If the government is serious about human rights promotion, one of the most efficient ways of proving this is to ensure that arms firms engaging in business activities which contribute to human rights abuses not only face the revocation of relevant sales licenses, but also face immediate tax deterrence.