What is the role played by arms exports from the Global North to countries where the State (the military, police, security forces) are implicated in violations against human rights defenders, organizations and communities?
The Peace Brigades International-Research Unit (PBI-RU), situated within Peace Brigades International-Canada, is currently studying the correlation between arms exports and State violence against human rights defenders.
This is part of our commitment to the preventative accompaniment of human rights defenders, as well as to advocacy and communications in service of strengthening the protection of at-risk human rights defenders.
For documented figures on attacks against human rights defenders we look to the annual Global Analysis report produced by Front Line Defenders, as well as the annual report on attacks against land and environmental defenders published by Global Witness, including the Roots of Resistance report published in September 2025.
With respect to documented exports of “military goods” we look to official annual reports published, for example, by the governments of Canada, as well as France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway, Spain, and the Netherlands.
Key findings from those reports are also visibilized and accessible through articles by mainstream news outlets as well as independent media, including The Maple and The Breach in Canada.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute also produces reports, for example National reports: Canada, and has a SIPRI Arms Transfers Database. Their most recent publication includes Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2025.
To correlate findings, we also look to commentary on “irresponsible arms transfers” as well as threats against human rights defenders around the world that are regularly documented by Amnesty International in their annual report, the most recent being The State of the World’s Human Rights: April 2026.
It can also be useful to review reports from the Business and Human Rights Centre, notably including the recent Navigating a global crossroads: Human rights defenders and business in 2025 that documents attacks against human rights defenders protesting weapons companies and arms fairs.
We also look to the report produced by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Corporate Underminers of Democracy 2025 that names the weapons company Northrop Grumman as a concern, as well as the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate Responsibility that has created the Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide database.
There are also other numerous individual publications and reports that we access, including those produced by Project Ploughshares, Forensic Architecture investigations, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (that has importantly documented the increased use of military drone attacks against journalists).
Further reading: Activity Update: The first-year of the Peace Brigades International-Research Unit (PBI-RU), June 16, 2026.
