Civil Society Pushing for Arms Trade Treaty

February 14, 2012

Final negotiations begin in July on the Arms Trade Treaty. The agreement would control the global trade in conventional weapons from rifles to tanks to warships. This week, the last round of preliminary talks is being held in New York.

In late 2006, the United Nations adopted resolution 61/89 that allowed work to begin on the Arms Trade Treaty, or ATT.

The proposed agreement has the support of 100 civil society groups, including the West Africa Network on Small Arms. Baffour Amoa is president of the NGO.

“It will frustrate arms traffickers and make it hard for them to ship and transship arms through naked, corrupt practices. I think it will boost the impact of existing regional protocols against small arms and light weapons proliferation. I think arms exporting countries will be more cautious in transferring arms to conflict zones and give peace-making the much needed chance,” he said.

Amoa said, “Transparency, monitoring and accountability in the arms trade may become more stringent.” But he added the ultimate goal is to save lives.

Landmines and other weapons

The Arms Trade Treaty is broader in scope that the Landmine Treaty that’s been in effect since the late 1990s.

“The landmine treaty was specific against a particular weapon that many states found unacceptable to use because of its devastating impact on human lives. The Arms Trade Treaty is really going to cover broader conventional weapons from tanks to rifles and so on and so forth,” he said.