Control Arms: Why we need a global Arms Trade Treaty

There are currently no legally binding, international rules regulating the arms trade.

National controls are rife with gaps and loopholes, making it all too easy for weapons to end up in the hands of those who use them to fuel conflict, undermine development and abuse human rights and humanitarian law.

This unregulated arms trade has catastrophic results:

• In an average year, small arms kill around a third of a million men, women and children – and leave hundreds of thousands more injured, disabled, traumatized and grieving
• 2,000 people die each day from armed violence, and hundreds of thousands more are displaced, maimed or loose their livelihood
• Conflict costs African countries $18bn USD every year

> Watch: see how the easy accessibility of weapons in Burundi is crippling its health services and making difficult for the country to develop and emerge from entrenched conflict:

Bang For Your Buck from ShootingPoverty on Vimeo.

This tragedy must, and can, be stopped.

How you can help

Join the campaign for a bulletproof Arms Trade Treaty that will protect and save lives. Add your name at www.controlarms.org and send a message to world leaders that we need an effective Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) now.

What is Oxfam doing about it?

Through the Control Arms campaign – a global civil society alliance – we are calling for a global, legally-binding Arms Trade Treaty, to control this deadly trade. Over one million people have signed our Million Faces Petition, which was presented to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2006. In 2009, work began in earnest on developing a treaty. The final negotiating conference is now set for 2012. We are continuing to keep the pressure on States to make sure the final treaty is effective in saving lives.

> Use the interactive map at armstreaty.org to find out what your Government’s position is on the key issues that will determine whether the Arms Trade Treaty will be bulletproof

Campaign successes so far

At the UN General Assembly in December 2006, a huge majority of 153 governments voted in favor of developing an Arms Trade Treaty. The following year, after pressure from Control Arms, over 100 governments responded to a UN Consultation on the ATT.

Three years later in 2009, after pressure from the Control Arms campaign, 153 countries again voted to start negotiations on the Arms Trade Treaty, and to conclude negotiations in 2012. This historic step is a major achievement for the millions of campaigners across the world who were asking for negotiations to start immediately.

Despite this success, some governments want to weaken the treaty. We need to keep the pressure on to make sure that they don’t succeed.

Read more

Arms Trade Treaty: Questions & Answers

Blog: Armstreaty 2011 - it's a wrap

Blog: How can the Arms Treaty support development?

In-depth: Shooting Down the MDGs: How irresponsible arms transfers undermine development goals

For more research and campaign materials from the Control Arms Alliance visit www.controlarms.org