Federal Act
on War Materiel
(War Mat Act, WMA)

¹ In as­sess­ing an ap­plic­a­tion for an ex­port li­cence un­der Art­icle 22 and for en­ter­ing in­to con­tracts un­der Art­icle 20, the fol­low­ing must be taken in­to con­sid­er­a­tion:

a.

main­tain­ing peace, in­ter­na­tion­al se­cur­ity and re­gion­al sta­bil­ity;

b.

the situ­ation with­in the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion; in par­tic­u­lar, re­spect for hu­man rights and the non-use of child sol­diers shall be taken in­to con­sid­er­a­tion;

c.

Switzer­land’s ef­forts in re­la­tion to de­vel­op­ment co­oper­a­tion; in par­tic­u­lar the pos­sib­il­ity that the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion ap­pears as one of the Least De­veloped Coun­tries on the up-to-date list of de­vel­op­ment as­sist­ance re­cip­i­ents is­sued by the De­vel­op­ment As­sist­ance Com­mit­tee of the Or­gan­isa­tion for Eco­nom­ic Co­oper­a­tion and De­vel­op­ment (OECD DAC List)³⁰;

d.

the be­ha­viour of the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion vis-à-vis the in­ter­na­tion­al com­munity, in par­tic­u­lar with re­gard to com­pli­ance with in­ter­na­tion­al law;

e.

the views of coun­tries that par­ti­cip­ate with Switzer­land in in­ter­na­tion­al ex­port con­trol re­gimes.

² Ex­port trade un­der Art­icle 22 and en­ter­ing in­to agree­ments un­der Art­icle 20 shall not be au­thor­ised if:

a.

the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion is in­volved in an in­tern­al or in­ter­na­tion­al armed con­flict;

b.

the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion com­mits ser­i­ous and sys­tem­at­ic vi­ol­a­tions of hu­man rights;

c.

there is a high risk that the war ma­ter­i­al to be ex­por­ted will be used against the ci­vil­ian pop­u­la­tion in the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion; or

d.

there is a high risk that the war ma­ter­i­al to be ex­por­ted will be passed on to un­desir­able end re­cip­i­ents in the coun­try of des­tin­a­tion.

³ In derog­a­tion from para­graphs 1 and 2, au­thor­isa­tion may be gran­ted for in­di­vidu­al hand­guns and small fire­arms of any cal­ibre with the re­lated am­muni­tion, provided the weapons are in­ten­ded to be used ex­clus­ively for private or sport­ing pur­poses.

⁴ In derog­a­tion from para­graph 2, au­thor­isa­tion may be gran­ted for ex­port trade for op­er­a­tions that foster peace that are car­ried out on the basis of a man­date from the United Na­tions, the Or­gan­iz­a­tion for Se­cur­ity and Co­oper­a­tion in Europe, or a supra­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tion whose ob­ject­ive is to pro­mote peace.