Meeting on the Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative
The U.S. Department of State hosted the inaugural plenary meeting of Subscribing States to the voluntary Code of Conduct of the Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative (ECHRI) in Washington, D.C. on September 14-15.
ECHRI was launched at the first Summit for Democracy in 2021 as part of the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal. ECHRI is a multilateral effort intended to counter state and non-state actors’ misuse of goods and technology to commit serious violations or abuses of human rights by using export controls in pursuit of national security interests.
The Code of Conduct released at the second Summit for Democracy in 2023 is the result of a U.S.-led effort to establish voluntary, nonbinding political commitments by Subscribing States to apply export controls in preventing the proliferation of goods, software, and technologies that could enable serious human rights abuses.
This week’s plenary marked the first in-person meeting of the 25 Subscribing States and non-government stakeholders to discuss implementation of the Code of Conduct and further integrate human rights criteria into export control regimes. The two day-event also focused on best practices for information sharing and efforts to strengthen consideration of human rights in export controls.
The United States remains steadfast in bolstering democracy and defending human rights consistent with our values and in support of global peace, security, and prosperity. Pic courtesy: X – handle
