On Monday 20th October,  the United Nations received the demands of over 2000 parliamentarians from 124 countries for urgent progress towards negotiation of an effective international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to help save lives and prevent grave human rights abuse and the ongoing destruction of livelihoods.

 

UPDATE 3rd November:

147 states at the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to move forward with work on an Arms Trade Treaty on Friday, 31st of October. 145 states supported for the Treaty and two others subsequently added their names, an increase on the 139 states who voted to start the UN process in October 2006, showing increasing global consensus in favour of the treaty. 116 of the yes voters also co-sponsored the resolution. The vote was particularly strong in Africa, South and Central America and Europe indicating strong demand for arms control both from countries severely affected by armed violence and from major exporters. Only the US and Zimbabwe voted against, ignoring increasing global consensus for an ATT.
 

UPDATE 28th October:

Over 100 countries have co-sponsored the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) resolution, including New Zealand, Australia and Pacific nations Fiji, Samoa, Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea. Even sceptical governments like China and Pakistan urged the international community to address the problem of illicit arms trade. The United States, the only country that voted against the ATT in 2006, did not comment in their statement. Click here to read statements from governments supportive of the ATT. The vote is scheduled for the end of next week and we hope that the number of co-sponsoring could increase even further before the vote. 

 

With over 1000 people being killed every day by armed violence, the parliamentarians, including ten New Zealand Members of Parliament, showed their support for an Arms Trade Treaty by signing a declaration that was presented to the Chair of the UN General Assembly’s Disarmament and International Security Committee (1st Committee), Ambassador Marco Antonio Suazo Fernández, from Honduras, at a meeting at the UN on Monday 20th October.

The ten New Zealand MPs include Phil Goff, Peter Dunne, Hone Harawira, Shane Jones, Keith Locke, Ross Robertson, Lesley Soper, Mita Ririnui, Lynne Pillay and Judy Turner. Recent responses put to candidates by Amnesty, in the runup to the New Zealand elections, indicates  significant cross-party support for the Arms Trade Treaty. In 2005, the New Zealand government pledged their support for an international treaty, commending the Control Arms campaign for driving the initiative.

Later this month the UN will take a crucial vote on whether to take forward plans to develop a treaty that will tighten the global trade in conventional arms, and to specifically consider how to stop transfers of weapons likely to be used for violations of international human rights law, and humanitarian law.

Parliamentarians, Ibrahim Toure from Mali, Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel from the Philippines and Gagan Thapa from Nepal handed over the declaration signed by their counterparts from around the world.

Speaking in advance of the handover event, Ibrahim Toure from Mali, one of the first states to back an ATT, said:

“Without an effective international treaty setting high common standards for all forms of international arms transfers covering all conventional arms, human rights and human security will continue to be at the mercy of irresponsible arms traders.

Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel from the Philippines added:

“It is a privilege to represent the thousands of parliamentarians around the world who have declared their backing for stronger controls on the arms trade.  We are all too aware of the huge human cost of arms misuse and we urge the states of the UN to vote to take forward a global legally binding Arms Trade Treaty.

Gagan Thapa from Nepal, added:

“As parliamentarians we collectively represent hundreds of thousands of people. We know that millions of men and women around the world support tougher controls on the arms trade. That’s why we are urging all states to take urgent action to Control Arms.”


Notes

• A copy of the list of signatories to the Parliamentarians Declaration is available on request or at the Control Arms website at www.controlarms.org
• You can find out more about the Control Arms campaign at www.controlarms.org

Click here to see what New Zealand Election Candidates have said about controlling the global arms trade