Omega Research Foundation has published new arms and security trade fair data on its website, expanding public access to information on arms fairs around the world and the companies that exhibit at them.
Arms and security fairs play an important part of the global trade in military, security and policing equipment. They bring together manufacturers, suppliers, government representatives, police, and security officials to meet, promote products, demonstrate new technologies and build political and commercial relationships. While some events are relatively small and national in focus, others are attended by hundreds or thousands of exhibitors and visitors from around the world.
Omega monitors these trade fairs to track how companies manufacture, promote and trade law enforcement and security equipment. This work helps us identify new products, emerging technologies, supplier networks, and the ways companies market equipment to police, prison, border, military and security agencies. It also helps expose regulatory gaps, including the continued promotion of equipment that may be inherently abusive or otherwise linked to torture, ill-treatment or excessive use of force.
For more than 30 years, Omega has collected and analysed information on arms and security fairs as part of its wider work monitoring the manufacture, trade and use of military, security and policing equipment . We are now working with Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) to make more of this information publicly available. Through this project, we aim to increase transparency around the arms and security trade and give researchers, journalists, civil society organisations, campaigners and others a practical tool for investigating arms fairs and the companies that attend them.
The new arms fairs section of Omega’s website includes a searchable table of fairs for which Omega holds data. Users can filter by event name, country, type of fair, or organiser. For individual fairs, users can also view detailed information on each event, including previous and upcoming event dates, locations, and where available exhibitor lists.
This data allows users to track specific manufacturers and suppliers across multiple events, identify trends in the promotion of particular types of equipment, examine the promotional activities of companies known to manufacture or market inherently abusive goods, and identify trade fairs, that may require closer scrutiny.
The database is a work in progress. Some records are more complete than others, and the availability of exhibitor information varies between events. Omega will continue to update and improve the data as further information becomes available. In the meantime, we welcome feedback from users. If you identify missing information or errors or would like to share materials that could help improve the dataset, please get in touch at info@omegaresearchfoundation.org.
Arms fairs data forms only part of Omega’s much wider archive of information on the arms trade, developed over several decades. We are currently exploring ways to make more of this archive accessible, with the aim of supporting researchers, journalists, campaigners and civil society organisations working to improve transparency and accountability in the arms and security trade, and will publish further updates soon.