Global Ethics Corner: Should America Stop Selling Weapons to Human Rights Violators?
From: Carnegie Council
Series: Global Ethics Corner
Length: 02:01
Global Ethics Corner is a weekly 2 minute segment devoted to newsworthy ethical issues. It presents both sides of an issue, asking viewers to weigh the information and make up their own minds.
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Piece Description
Global Ethics Corner is a weekly 2 minute segment devoted to newsworthy ethical issues. It presents both sides of an issue, asking viewers to weigh the information and make up their own minds.
Transcript
2011 was a bad year for dictators. But it was a stellar year for American arms dealers. Commercial arms sales shot up by a third, resulting in 44 billion dollars in sales. That makes the United States the world's top supplier of major conventional weapons.
The boom in arms profits comes at a steep social price. A new State Department report shows that some of the new buyers of U.S. arms are countries with questionable human rights records, like Saudi Arabia, Brazil and India. Long-time buyers of U.S. arms include Egypt, Algeria, and Israel.
According to activists, many of these countries are rampant human rights abusers. They're accused of infringing on free speech, free assembly, and political choice. Several are accused of condoning torture, rape, and even extrajudicial killings. By selling weapons to human rights offenders, critics say the U.S. is complicit in such atrocities.
Amer...
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Additional Credits
Deborah Carroll – Executive Producer
Marlene Spoerri – Contributing Writer
Julia Kennedy - Content Editor
Robert Smithline - Editor
Terence Hurley - Editor
Gusta Johnson - Production Assistant
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