Global Arms Trade Treaty

After twenty years of global campaigning, on 2 April 2013, governments at the United Nations voted overwhelmingly to adopt a global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT); since then over a hundred states have signed and many of those have started to ratify the Treaty. The rules, if implemented, will stop a wide range of arms flows when the sending state knows those weapons would be used for human atrocities and abuse. States that are parties to the Treaty will meet and report regularly, and can strengthen it over time.

This is a huge victory for human rights, given the powerful forces that opposed the Treaty. For the first time, there is a treaty that has explicitly included conventional arms control and human rights rules.