TCA

A major diplomatic negotiation aiming to regulate the trade in weapons and ammunition is at risk of failing due to member states’ insistence to give every state the right to veto a future treaty, according to the Control Arms coalition.

Efforts to end the irresponsible and poorly-regulated international arms trade are at risk of failure, as negotiations at the United Nations enter a critical final week, campaigners warned today.

In reaction to the delay in Arms Trade Treaty Talks, Jeff Abramson, Director of the Secretariat of the Control Arms Coalition said:

Political leaders have a historic opportunity to place human rights and humanitarian aims above self-interest and profit when final negotiations to regulate the global arms trade begin today at the United Nations, campaigners from across the world said.

The arms trade is out of control. The irresponsible trade in arms devastates lives and livelihoods and the world can no longer continue turning a blind eye.

The prospective new international Arms Trade Treaty must regulate the sale of parts and components being used to maintain or manufacture deadly weapons and military equipment, according to a new report by Oxfam.

Modern weapons and military equipment cannot be made or maintained without parts and components that are sourced and traded around the world.

The poorly regulated global trade in arms and ammunition weakens the ability and willingness of governments to sustain progress in development.

Global sales of ammunition are worth more than $4 billion and are growing at a faster rate than trade in guns, yet there is virtually no regulation in place to control where the bullets end up.

Guns are useless without bullets. An Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) that does not control ammunition will not achieve its purposes.