Tag: control arms

Today at the United Nations in New York, we have been part of making history. 155 governments including Australia have just voted yes to a ground-breaking Arms Trade Treaty to curb the irresponsible arms trade that every day claims 1,500 lives. The global agreement on this treaty has finally sent a clear signal to gunrunners […] Read more »

On 2 April 2013, history was made as the Arms Trade Treaty – the first agreement to control global arms sales – received an overwhelming ‘yes’ vote at the United Nations in New York. This momentous Treaty is the culmination of more than ten years of campaigning to rein in the irresponsible trade in arms […] Read more »

Tomorrow we are hoping to make history. After 10 years of campaigning for a legally binding Arms Trade Treaty that works to curb the irresponsible weapons trade, world governments will finally vote on the treaty text in the UN General Assembly in less than 12 hours. Over the past two weeks, Oxfam campaigners have been […] Read more »

On the penultimate day of the ATT negotiations we got the media’s attention early morning with a helicopter assembled on a New York rooftop, with the UN in the background. Monday started with a press conference, where it was made clear to the world that the text on the table was not something that was going […] Read more »

“What do you actually do all day over there?” That’s a question a friend back home skyped me on Wednesday. I’ve been working on the Arms Trade Treaty for a long time now, and spent a lot of time at the various UN meetings. But what actually happens? What do we do all day? I thought I’d […] Read more »

For more than a decade, millions of people across the globe have campaigned for a global treaty to bring the poorly regulated international arms trade under control. This goal is now in reach. Read more »

This week marks the second anniversary of the start of the bloody Syrian civil war, which has killed an estimated 70,000 people, injured hundreds of thousands more and led to over a million people fleeing the country in fear. The UN Security Council has failed to impose an arms embargo on Syria. With only a […] Read more »

Australia is now a non-Permanent Member of the UN Security Council. After 26 years on the bench, on 1 January 2013 Australia will begin its two-year membership of the UN Security Council. Having worked so tirelessly to secure this seat, Australia now has a rare opportunity to play a key role in addressing the great […] Read more »

With just one day left in the negotiations for a legally binding Arms Trade Treaty, Oxfam Australia along with Amnesty International, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and World Council of Churches encouraged the Australian Government to make one final push to ensure a strong and robust instrument. A draft text was presented […] Read more »

There are just two days to go in the negotiations for the world’s first legally binding instrument to control the international trade in conventional arms. While there are currently less international controls on the trade in arms than bananas, the draft text before the UN is riddled with loopholes and ambiguities that will continue to […] Read more »