Governments must build a strong Arms Trade Treaty

Today a more ambitious treaty is being developed at the United Nations: a global Arms Trade Treaty to regulate sales of all conventional arms. The majority of the world’s governments support the initiative, as well as campaign groups including Oxfam International, Amnesty International and the International Action Network on Small Arms.

 

Now, the challenge is to build a strong Treaty to stop arms transfers that are likely to fuel serious human rights violations, conflict and poverty.

 

It is time that all governments took responsibility for the individual tragedies perpetrated with the weapons they supply: the woman raped at gunpoint, the young man crushed under the tracks of a battle tank, the child forced to become a soldier.

 

Currently, the UN Secretary General is asking governments what they want the Arms Trade Treaty to cover. We call on all governments to listen to the millions of people around the world who live in daily fear of armed violence, and build a Treaty tough enough to protect them.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Christiane Amanpour, CNN

Martin Bell, ex-BBC correspondent

Marcus Bleasdale, freelance photographer

Jimmie Briggs, freelance writer

Sarah Chayes, former NPR correspondent

Mariella Furrer, freelance photographer

Janine Di Giovanni, freelance correspondent for The Times and

Vanity Fair

Sebastian Junger, Vanity Fair

Michael Kamber, freelance photographer for The New York

Times and Vanity Fair

Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker

Don McCullin, freelance photographer

Mike McRoberts, TV3

Paul Moreira, Canal Plus

Florence Muracciole, Journal du Dimanche

Maggie O'Kane, The Guardian

Elizabeth Rubin, The New York Times Magazine

Sorious Samura, documentary maker

Jon Snow, Channel 4 News

Jon Stephenson, freelance reporter, producer

Charles Wheeler, ex-BBC correspondent