An end-user certificate, or EUC, is a document used in international transfers, including sales and arms provided as aid, of

weapons A weapon, arm, or armament is any implement or device that is used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime (e.g., murder), law ...

and

ammunition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...

to certify that the buyer is the final recipient of the materials and does not plan on transferring the materials to another. EUCs are required by many governments to restrict the movement of military materials to undesired destinations, such as non-state actors under an international or domestic embargo, governments with bad human rights records or states that are considered to be threats by the original supplier of the arms.

Issues

There are several problems with EUCs as a means to prevent undesirable arms exports: EUCs can be forged or falsified. They can also be obtained from

corrupt Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

officials and so there is a need for EUCs that are difficult to forge. Another problem is that an EUC does not guarantee that the arms recipient will actually live up to its promise not to transfer the weapons received. EUCs that are not backed up by proper end-use monitoring are weak. In 1936 to 1938, German arms were supplied to both sides in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

via Greece using Greek and Mexican end-user certificates: see Pyrkal.

References

Arms control Arms industry Weapons trade {{law-term-stub