Arms Trade Treaty

Since the early 1990s, an active civil society campaign has been promoting the negotiation of a robust, comprehensive, legally-binding treaty to establish standards and restrictions on the international trade in conventional arms. Right now, preparations are underway at the United Nations for negotiations of just such a treaty.

• UN negotiation process
  • First Preparatory Committee, 12–23 July 2010
  • Second Preparatory Committee, 28 February–4 March 2011
  • Third Preparatory Committee, 11–15 July 2011
  • Fourth Preparatory Committee, 13–17 February 2012
  • Negotiating Conference, 2–27 July 2012
• Brief history of the UN process
• Elements of the treaty
• NGO materials and campaigns
• UN Office for Disarmament Affairs ATT materials

Brief history of the UN process

On 24 July 2006, Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Finland, Japan, Kenya, and the United Kingdom presented a draft resolution, entitled "Towards an arms trade treaty: establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms." The General Assembly adopted the resolution, which established a group of governmental experts (GGE) in 2008 to examine the feasibility of an ATT and requested member states to submit their views on the treaty to the UN Secretary-General. UNIDIR provided an analysis of states views. The United States was the only government to vote against the resolution.

In September 2007, the UN Secretary-General appointed the GGE, which included experts from 28 countries. The GGE met in three sessions between February and August 2008 and adopted a final report by consensus. The GGE included nearly all major arms exporters, including many of whom had expressed doubts about feasibility of the ATT. Its major recommendation was for further consideration of the issue within the UN in an open and transparent manner on the basis of consensus-meaning through a process including the entire UN membership.

At the 2008 General Assembly, the seven original sponsors of the ATT resolution tabled a new draft text that included a decision to establish an Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG). The working group was to be open to all states, to meet in six one-week sessions between 2009 and 2011 to consider where consensus can be found on a prospective treaty. The resolution was adopted as 63/240. Once again, only the United States voted against. Nineteen states abstained, including a number of Arab states, China, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and Russia. For a good analysis and overview of the OEWG process, see Michael Spies, "Towards a negotiating mandate for an arms trade treaty," Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No. 91, Summer 2009.

In 2009, the General Assembly adopted resolution 64/48, which included a decision to convene a United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, "to sit for four consecutive weeks in 2012 to elaborate a legally-binding instrument on the highest possible common international standards for the transfer of conventional arms." It established four preparatory committees in 2010 and 2011 to make recommendations to the negotiating conference on the elements necessary for an effective treaty. 153 states voted in favour, 19 abstained, and only Zimbabwe voted against the resolution. The US changed its position under the Obama administration, voting in favour of the negotiating process.

Elements of the treaty

Goals and objectives refer to what the problems the treaty is meant to solve at the broadest level. They can be as narrow as preventing the illicit transfer of arms to terrorists or as broad as establishing rules and criteria affecting all arms transfers. They could also be anywhere in between, for example, prohibiting transfer of arms to abusers of human rights or international humanitarian law

Scope refers to the type of weapons and activities or transactions an ATT would cover. Activities and transactions potentially encompasses the full range of acts related to the transfer of weapons, from licensing and brokering to export, transshipment, and import, etc.

Criteria refers to the potential range of principles or standards that would give an exporter a presumption to deny an export, such as violation of human rights or the potential for the arms to be used to commit crimes or to violate international humanitarian law. They also cover the operational mechanism by which any such principles will be applied to arms transfer decisions.

The negotiations will also have to address elements related to implementation, compliance, transparency and reporting, victim assistance, international association and cooperation, and more.

NGO materials and campaigns

Reaching Critical Will/WILPF materials and publications

• WILPF position paper on the arms trade treaty
• WILPF action toolkit on the arms trade treaty
• Arms Trade Treaty Monitor: a daily PDF digest that provides reporting and analysis on the ATT preparatory committees by civil society activists and NGO representatives
• Arms Trade Treaty Monitor: The Blog: an ongoing civil society blog about all things related to the ATT, including but not limited to the negotiating process
• Beyond an ATT, Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will/WILPF, February 2011
• The ATT, women, and gender, Emma Rosengren, WILPF Sweden, February 2011
• The importance of treaty objectives for implementation, Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will/WILPF, July 2011
• More debate on implementation, Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will/WILPF, July 2011
• Brokering and implementation of the ATT, Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will/WILPF, July 2011
• The feasibility of aspiration, Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will/WILPF, July 2011

Other NGO materials and publications

Control Arms Campaign position papers

• Implementation (June 2011)
• Global Principles (July 2009)
• Scope: Type of Transfers (July 2009)
• Scope: Type of Weapons (July 2009)

Practical guides

• Our Right to Know: Transparent Reporting Under an Arms Trade Treaty (Amnesty International, June 2011)
• Small, but lethal: small arms ammunition and the arms trade treaty (Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2011)
• National Implementation of the Proposed Arms Trade Treaty (Oxfam International, Saferworld, University of Georgia, 2010)
• Applying Sustainable Development to Arms Transfer Decisions (Oxfam International, April 2009)
• Applying Human Rights Standards to Arms Transfer Decisions (Amnesty International, 2008)
• Applying International Humanitarian Law Criteria (International Committee of the Red Cross, May 2007)

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