Disposing of Rhino Horns Recovered from Smugglers, Kruger National Park, South Africa
CONFLICT
AWARENESS
PROJECT
Holding accountable those who fuel war, conflict, and harm to vulnerable communities and the natural world.
January 2022
On January 13, 2022 CAP's Partner, Rebalance Earth, celebrated its amazing accomplishments over the past year.
The event showcased several amazing guest speakers, including:
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Ralph Chami Co-founder of Rebalance Earth
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Ian Redmond - Co-founder of Rebalance Earth
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Fabio Berzaghi - Ecosystem Services
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Kathi Lynn Austin - Executive Director of Conflict Awareness Project - Project Gabon
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Tony Vernall - Technology
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Mark Raynes from R3
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Petko Karamotchev from Industria
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Natalia Nicolescu - Building an ethical business
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Tom Bottomley from Ernst & Young
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Ben Knight from GoCardless
WATCH the full webinar
Get more information about CAP's Partnership with Rebalance
CAP's Mission
The Conflict Awareness Project (CAP) is an international non-profit dedicated to investigating, documenting, and bringing to justice major arms traffickers, war profiteering networks, and transnational criminal operations that fuel war, conflict, and natural resource exploitation around the globe.
Support our daily work and help bring major arms traffickers to justice, save lives, and help build a more just and peaceful world.
News Feed
February 2024
The Wilson Center's Mexico Institute is hosting the 11th Annual US-Mexico Security Conference on Wednesday, February 28, 2024. Their first panel focuses on the diversity of goods passing between the US and Mexico, and strategies to combat and unravel these networks. The webinar will be held between 7am - 8am PT.
Join panelist Kathi Lynn Austin, the lead researcher on the recent Mexico initiative report at the Pacific Council, as she delves into the topic of security alongside panelist Laura Dawson, former fellow and former director of the Canada Institute, and Jim F. Vivenzio, Senior Counsel of Perkins Cole.
October 2023
In line with the release of 'The U.S. - Mexico Double Fix: Combating the Flow of Guns to Transnational Organized Crime' report, CAP's Executive Director, Kathi Lynn Austin, will be speaking at the upcoming North Capital Forum in Mexico City. The session, 'Lean on me': Partnering to Bolster North American Security', will take place on Thursday, October 5, 2023, from 9:00 - 9:45am. We invite you to join us for this important discussion on enhancing security in the North American region.
March 2024
Kathi Lynn Austin, the lead researcher on the 2023 Mexico initiative report at the Pacific Council, presided over this Pacific Council Webinar on March 21, 2024. The insightful conversation examined the stakes of Mexico’s lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers for aiding and abetting illegal arms sales.
April 2024
October 2020
January 2020
WILDLIFE CRIME IS FINANCIAL CRIME: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH IN THE FIGHT AGAINST WILDLIFE CRIME WEBINAR
October 14, 2020
Part 3: Intelligence
Topic: Follow the Guns
13:35 BST (8:35 AM EST)
Wildlife Crime threatens many species with extinction. It is a major transnational organised crime that fuels bribery and corruption, threatens biodiversity and conservation, impacts tourism and promotes illicit flows and activities.
Kathi Lynn Austin, Executive Director of CAP, joins a panel of 26 speakers from multiple disciplines for this informative and thought-provoking webinar series entitled “Wildlife Crime is Financial Crime: A collaborative approach in the fight against wildlife crime”.
Each speaker offers insight and highlights why there is a need to look through numerous lenses and shed light on wildlife crime's full supply chain to find a collective solution to end wildlife crime in Africa and beyond.
Day 1: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/2623482433003964939
Day 2: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/5351984309048759819
Day 3: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/1357372803542174210
Day 4: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/2445831040968379907
January 2020
PRESENTS
KATHI LYNN AUSTIN
Unofficial Spy
Details
Date: January 27, 2020
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: The Historic Bolling Haxall House | 211 East Franklin Street Richmond VA 232
Kathi Lynn Austin is an expert on arms trafficking, peace and security, and human rights. For three decades, she has investigated the illegal trade in weapons, illicit trafficking operations, illegal resource exploitation and terrorism. She has documented conflicts in Africa, Latin America, East and Central Europe, and South Asia. Her work has been noted by Amnesty International, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and by the Arms Control Association. Founder and Executive Director of the Conflict Awareness Project, Austin will share stories about her global effort tracking illegal guns as a means to bring some of the world’s most notorious
perpetrators to justice.
December 2019
Follow the Guns: Combating Rhino Poaching & Wildlife Crime
Hosted by the Pacific Council on International Policy
at Mikkeller DTLA, 33 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angelos, California
Thursday, December 5, 2019
6:30pm to 8:30pm
A conversation on the illegal wildlife trade and international conservation efforts with Kathi Lynn Austin.
An estimated $23 billion black-market industry, wildlife crime is an emerging U.S. national security threat and a source of financing for terrorist and rogue regimes. For three decades, Austin has investigated international arms trafficking networks, war profiteers, and transnational criminal operations fueling conflict, natural resource exploitation, and terrorism around the world. Austin will share stories about her three-continent investigation into the guns used by wildlife traffickers and how her CSI "follow the guns" approach has enabled her to identify rhino poaching kingpins and help bring them to justice.
Read Austin's report, Follow the Guns: An Overlooked Key to Combat Rhino Poaching and Wildlife Crime, which demonstrates that disrupting the supply of weapons used in wildlife crime worldwide is a much-needed—and often overlooked—conservation tool.
Featuring:
Kathi Lynn Austin, Founder and Executive Director, Conflict Awareness Project
Kathi Lynn Austin is an expert on arms trafficking, peace and security, and human rights. Austin has served as an arms trafficking expert for the United Nations Security Council, as well as chief of analysis for United Nations peacekeeping operations.
Explorers Club Public Lecture Series with Kathi Lynn Austin
On March 11, 2019, Kathi Lynn Austin took guests on an intrepid journey into a three-year, six-country investigation of a global gunrunning network that helped launch and fuel industrial-level rhino poaching in Southern Africa at The Explorer's Club in New York, New York.
CAP's Executive Director Kathi Lynn Austin provides insight on the Rhino poaching crisis following the CarteBlanche Follow The Guns expose
CAP Executive Director Kathi Lynn Austin to Speak at Arms Trafficking Conference at EU Parliament in Brussels
On March 3, 2015, join CAP ED Kathi Lynn Austin at the ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) Conference “Arms Trafficking – Also an EU Origin Problem” at the European Parliament in Brussels. The conference will focus on the increasing problem of firearms trafficking in Europe, and the region’s role as a pipeline to international markets, especially in light of the recent terrorist attack in France. Topics include loopholes in the current system, the impact of new technologies like 3-D printing, and how to effectively tackle firearms trafficking. Ms. Austin will be presenting her perspective on the state of international small arms smuggling.
"50 Celebrating 50: UN and Control Arms Fete Passage of Landmark Arms Trade Treaty
Kathi Lynn Austin in Syria, 50 Celebrating 50 (Photo: Claudio Von Planta/CIR)
On September 25, 2014, eight countries ratified the landmark UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a multilateral pact that not only regulates the trade in conventional weapons, it compels parties to assess whether they may be used in human rights violations and prevent the distribution of such arms. The signatories pushed the number of state parties over 50, causing the treaty to enter into force on December 25, 2014 and enjoin all UN members to abide by its rules. 20 years in the making, the ATT is the culmination of work by many thousands across the globe.
CAP Executive Director Kathi Lynn Austin was honored to be selected by Control Arms as one of their 50 Celebrating 50 initiative, featuring photos and quotes from 50 political leaders, survivors, and campaigners who have worked to make the ATT a reality. The 50 Celebrating 50 photo exhibit was displayed at UN headquarters in New York in Fall 2014, and is currently available for viewing online. Control Arms and the UN also invite you to add your voice: submit a photo and quote to share why you’re celebrating 50.
Press Conference on Swiss Refiner Argor-Heraeus SA
Laundering of Conflict Gold
November 4, 2013 – CAP executive director Kathi Lynn Austin joins representatives from TRIAL and Open Society Foundations’ Justice Initiative at a press conference in Geneva, in which Swiss refining giant Argor-Heraeus SA was denounced for money laundering related to the pillage of “blood gold” from war-torn eastern Congo. Update: The Swiss Federal Prosecutor has announced a war crimes investigation has now been opened against the corporation, the first charge of pillage against a corporation since just after WWII.
Download the Report
"A Short Film About Guns" Wins Best Short at Tribeca
(l to r): Minos Papas, Ishmael Beah Kathi Lynn Austin, and producer Louis Belanger celebrate at a Control Arms reception during the 2013 TFF.
"A Short Film About Guns," a firsthand look at the international illegal arms trade, won Best Short Film at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Minos Papas, the film features CAP founder Kathi Lynn Austin, former child soldier Ishmael Beah, war photographer Paul Conroy, and Rear Admiral (ret.) Stuart Platt, who recount their experiences with the black market trade in areas of conflict and how the unlawful flow of weapons across the globe facilitates loss of life and devastation.