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Arms Trade Treaty

  • Arms Treaty Text Emerges from UN Talks
    Press Room
    July 24, 2012

    (Washington, D.C.) Today, the first consolidated draft text of a global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) emerged from arduous negotiations at the United Nations. Governments have just three days to narrow any remaining differences before the conference concludes on July 27.
  • The Arms Trade Treaty and the NRA's Misleading Rhetoric
    Issue Briefs
    July 11, 2012

    The ongoing conflict in Syria-like recent wars in Burma, Congo, Liberia, Sudan, and Sierra Leone-underscores the urgent need for common standards for international transfers of conventional weapons and ammunition, as well as legally-binding requirements for all states to review exports and imports--particularly for arms transfers that could lead to human rights abuses or violate international arms embargoes.
  • Op-ed: Time to Curb the Illicit Global Arms Trade
    Press Room
    July 9, 2012

    The following piece was originally published in The Christian Science Monitor on July 9, 2012

    Each year, hundreds of thousands of civilians around the globe are slaughtered by conventional weapons that are sold, transferred by governments, or diverted to unscrupulous regimes, criminals, illegal militias, and terrorist groups. The enormous human toll from the unregulated trade of conventional arms undermines international security and impedes economic and social development.
  • Arms Trade Treaty Talks Set to Begin
    Arms Control Today
    July 5, 2012

    Delegates gathering at the United Nations this month to negotiate a treaty regulating the international arms trade will have to resolve a number of issues concerning the pact’s objectives and scope that remain unsettled since the UN General Assembly decided in 2009 to convene the conference, representatives from a broad range of countries said in June interviews and earlier statements.
  • Arms Trade Treaty Negotiations Begin July 2
    Issue Briefs
    June 28, 2012

    Volume 3, Issue 9, June 30, 2012

    Thousands of civilians around the globe are slaughtered each year by weapons that are sold, transferred by governments or diverted to unscrupulous regimes, criminals, illegal militias, and terrorist groups.
  • Exposing the Arms Trade
    Arms Control Today
    May 31, 2012

    Edward J. Laurance is a professor of international policy studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He was a consultant to the UN Register of Conventional Arms (1992-1994), the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Small Arms (1996-1997), and the UN program of action on small arms (2000-2001) and currently serves as an expert for the UN project developing international standards to control small arms. He is author of The International Arms Trade (1992).
  • The Urgent Need for an Arms Trade Treaty
    Arms Control Today
    May 31, 2012

    Late last month, UN officials confirmed that more than 100 Syrians—the majority women and children—were killed following artillery and tank shelling of civilians near the town of Haoula by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad. Despite the brutality of the Assad regime over the 15-month conflict in which some 10,000 Syrians have been killed, Russia, Iran, and possibly others continue to sell weapons to Damascus.
  • Fifty Organizations Urge President Obama to Pursue Robust and Effective Global Arms Trade Treaty
    Press Room
    May 23, 2012

    (WASHINGTON, D.C.)—As part of a growing global campaign to build support for an effective and robust international agreement to regulate international arms deals, more than fifty organizations are urging President Barack Obama to “spare no effort to seize the historic opportunity to negotiate a robust, bullet-proof Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).”
  • Controlling Proliferation: An Interview With Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman
    Interviews
    May 2, 2012

    Thomas Countryman took office as assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation on September 27, 2011. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1982. While serving in the U.S. mission to the United Nations in the mid-1990s, he was the mission’s liaison with the UN Special Commission investigating Iraq's unconventional weapons programs.
  • Hurdles for Arms Trade Treaty Underscored
    Arms Control Today
    May 2, 2012

    U.S. officials last month emphasized the need for an arms trade treaty (ATT) while acknowledging its possible limitations and the obstacles to agreement on the pact, which is to be negotiated July 2-27 at the United Nations.