Campaigning for a bulletproof Arms Trade Treaty

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Every day around 2,000 people are killed in armed violence worldwide. For every death, countless more people are injured and traumatised. Many of the weapons used in these killings are illegally traded small arms, yet there are no global rules for the arms trade.

In fact, there are more international regulations concerning the trading of bananas than weapons. Oxfam, as part of the Control Arms coalition, is campaigning for an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to regulate this deadly trade and save lives.

The latest on the Control Arms campaign

2012 has been amazing for the Arms Trade Treaty. It's seen the development of a first draft of the treaty itself with the support of nations from across the globe - a huge step forward in the battle to secure to robust ATT which will save lives.

While this draft text wasn't adopted at the July conference, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) this October agreed that work must go on, and new negotiations have been scheduled for March 2013 when the ATT will again be debated.

The vote at this March event will be a veto - so a country could block as the US did this summer - but the Control Arms coalition fought hard at this October's UNGA for the inclusion of a paragraph that will allow a vote on the draft text to be taken at the next General Assembly, if the treaty isn't agreed in the spring.

The current treaty text needs to be strengthened so that it is truly effective, but progress this year has been unprecedented.

Play your part

If you're as passionate about the Arms Trade Treaty as us, then please use the template letter below to ask your MP to keep the pressure on for a strong ATT.

Download letter template (Word .doc 31KB)

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