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Article by: Institute for Security Studies
Published: 28 Jul 2010
Moving Forward on an Arms Trade Treaty
Since 2000, efforts to put in place global mechanisms to control the import, export, transfer and transit of weapons have focused on small arms and light weapons (SALW) and as such have been largely located in the non-binding United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (UN PoA).


More recently however the arms control community has focused on developing a set of international guidelines to include all conventional weapons, leading towards an international treaty governing the arms trade in general. This is commonly referred to as the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).


At the 61st UN General Assembly meeting in 2006, member states adopted resolution A/RES/61/89, "Towards an arms trade treaty: Establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms". The resolution called on the Secretary-General to ‘seek the views of Member States on the feasibility, scope and draft parameters for a comprehensive, legally binding instrument establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms'. It also called on the UN Secretary-General to establish a group of governmental experts (GGE) to address such a treaty and to report on its findings at the 63rd session of the General Assembly.


Following the release of the report by the GGE in October 2008, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) process faltered as divergent views and a lack of consensus on a number of elements relating to the specifics of an ATT became evident.


In an attempt to build consensus on these elements, an open-ended working group (OEWG) was established in 2009, which met twice in that same year. In January 2010, a UN resolution was passed detailing a process to further consensus on elements of an ATT and eventually lead to the negotiation of the actual treaty. The resolution called for a UN Conference on the ATT (to be held in 2012) to negotiate the treaty. The resolution also declared that the four remaining sessions of the OEWG be considered a preparatory committee (PrepCom) for the conference. The first of these was held from the 12th - 23rd of July this year at the UN headquarters in New York.


The aim of the first PrepCom was for governments to make ‘recommendations on the elements that would be needed to attain an effective and balanced legally binding instrument on the highest possible common international standards for the transfer of conventional arms.' The meeting also aimed to reduce divergence views and address concerns raised by states.
The scope of an ATT is one element that is proving difficult to reach consensus on, as there have been mixed responses to the inclusion of certain types of weapon systems and dual-use goods. There is also still some disagreement over the objective and parameters of the treaty. Some states would like to see the ATT as a mechanism for assisting in the prevention of human rights and international law violations, while others are proposing that it be limited to preventing legal arms from being diverted to illicit markets.1


As a continent severely affected by the proliferation and misuse of SALW, Africa has continued to express its support for the ATT process. In a statement made during the first PrepCom, the Africa group continued to stress that an ATT ‘...must particularly take full account of the special responsibilities of major arms producers and the special rights of arms importing States. Production and stockpiling of conventional arms by major producers should thus be part of any potential ATT.'


The first PrepCom has been successful in getting the ball rolling on what an eventual ATT will look like. It is yet to be seen if agreement can be reached on the more controversial elements of an ATT during the remaining PrepComs and if an effective universal ATT can be negotiated in 2012. In addition, and of particular concern, was the exclusion of civil society from the discussions despite attending initial sessions. This is somewhat ironic given that the ATT stemmed from a civil society initiative and that one of the underlying principles of an ATT is increased transparency in the arms trade. Also disappointing was that while the Africa Group assured the meeting of its support for, and co-operation with, the process, attendance and engagement from individual African states during meeting was minimal.


Written by: Dominique Dye, researcher, Arms Management Programme, ISS Pretoria


1. International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) feedback from the First Preparatory Committee meeting on the arms trade treaty, 14 July 2010.