Towards an International Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)

“The idea is simple: require our countries not to transfer weapons to states, groups or individuals if there is reason to believe the weapons will be used to violate human rights or existing international law… An Arms Trade Treaty would make legal ties out of the moral ties by which we already know we must abide.”

Dr. Óscar Arias Sánchez, Nobel Laureate and President of Costa Rica

The need for an ATT None of the major challenges facing the international community today, from the humanitarian disaster in Darfur, to combating the threat of terrorism and improving prospects for development in Africa, can be resolved without controlling the spread of armaments. With no international legally-binding controls on the import and export of arms, weapons are able to move easily across the world to regions of conflict and to countries notorious for human rights abuses. An ATT would fill this gap, helping to prevent weapons being so easily transferred across the globe.

What would an ATT do? An ATT would establish legally-binding international controls, based on existing commitments under international law, on the import and export of arms and set out a practical mechanism for their application.

Recent progress towards achieving an ATT Last year, 153 governments voted in favour of a resolution mandating a start to international discussions on an ATT. Proposed by the UK and six other states, this landmark resolution sets out a process for the UN to consider the scope, feasibility and draft parameters of a legally-binding ATT. Member States were asked to submit their views on the ATT to the UN Secretary General and over half the world’s countries have now done so.

What happens next? In October 2007, the UN General-Secretary Ban-Ki Moon, will present a report collating Member States’ views to the UN General Assembly. An international Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) will then be formed to look into an ATT in more detail, using the Secretary General’s report as its starting point. The GGE will hold meetings in the first half of 2008 and report back to the UN General Assembly in autumn 2008.

What can parliamentarians do? There is no question that the UK Government has been one of the leaders in promoting an ATT. However, as the discussions intensify during the GGE, it is vital that the momentum behind the ATT is maintained and supportive governments are encouraged not to compromise on key points. The ATT needs parliamentary champions to raise the political and public profile of the Treaty to ensure that the Government continues to champion not just any ATT, but a meaningful and effective ATT.

The role of Parliament Parliamentarians have a crucial role to play in pushing for an effective ATT.

By tabling an Early Day Motion or asking parliamentary questions on the status of the ATT, Parliamentarians can ensure that the UK Government regularly reports back on progress to Parliament and remains alert to the broad constituency of support behind this initiative. By using international parliamentary networks to raise the issue, parliamentarians can encourage colleagues and MPs from other countries to put pressure on their governments to support and champion an ATT.

It is also essential that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) continues to make the ATT a priority for its work and resource it accordingly. But this is not only a job for the FCO. The ATT must be a cross-Whitehall project, with the Prime Minister, Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Development intimately involved in developing strategies and lobbying other governments and institutions.

Critical to any message to the Government should be that an ATT must be a set of global guidelines reflecting states’ existing obligations under international law, including the UN Charter, UN embargoes, human rights and international humanitarian law.

Saferworld’s role Saferworld has been actively working to improve international arms controls for over ten years. Saferworld is a member of the ATT Steering Committee, a group of NGOs from around the world that has been critical in generating support for an ATT among a rapidly increasing number of states. Most recently, Saferworld has encouraged governments across Europe, South Asia and Africa, both in capitals and through their missions to the UN in New York and Geneva, to contribute to the consultation process.

Find out more • To read more about the Control Arms campaign, visit: http://www.controlarms.org/ • To read more about the progress of the ATT at the UN General Assembly and read views of Member States, visit: http://disarmament.un.org/cab/ATT/index.html • To find out more about Saferworld’s international arms transfer control work, visit: www.saferworld.org.uk

For further information, please contact:

Dan Tyler, Advocacy and Policy Officer, Saferworld Tel: +44 (0)207 324 4646 / [email protected]