A unique opportunity for the Arms Trade Treaty (original) (raw)
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The Road Forward for the Arms Trade Treaty: A Civil Society Practitioner Commentary
Global Policy, 2014
Civil society – particularly the Control Arms coalition – played a pivotal role in imagining and campaigning for the 2013 Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the first comprehensive global regulations on the trade and transfer in conventional weapons. To consider this ‘road forward’ for the ATT and civil society’s involvement in it, we have convened a conversation with three activists – from different organizations, different continents and differing points of view – who have been involved in the campaign for a robust treaty for many years.
Implications and consequences of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)
2016
The international sales volume of conventional arms has been considerably increasing, making it necessary to create an international normative framework of regulations: the adoption of the ATT by the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly (2013) represents a historical achievement to establish global standards for the arms trade, with the purpose of supporting international peace and security and curbing human-rights abuses. This paper describes the process aimed at regulating the legal arms trade and strengthening the fight against the illicit trafficking. Through the data of the U.N. Disarmament Affairs, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the amount of conventional arms transfers worldwide has been analyzed. The articles of the ATT are illustrated focusing on the most innovative and critical dispositions. In conclusion, the Conference of the State Parties will face the turbulent developments and the different international perspectives for the future of the ATT.
Negotiating the Arms Trade Treaty (special issue)
2012
Coordinated by Javier Alcalde, this special issue deals whith transnational activism when negotiating the Arms Trade Treaty. It includes the following articles: - Negotiating the Arms Trade Treaty - United for an effective Arms Trade Treaty - From 4077 M*A*S*H to 2012 UN-ATT - Arms Control and Civil Society: Some Retrospect - Africa needs a Robust Arms Trade Treaty - Interview with Roberto García Moritán, chairman of the Global Arms Trade Treaty Diplomatic Conference
Taking Stock of the Arms Trade Treaty: Achievements, Challenges and Ways Forward
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 2021
SIPRI Policy Paper. Adopted in 2013 and entered into force in December 2014, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is the first legally binding international agreement that aims to establish the highest possible common standards for regulating the international trade in conventional arms, to eradicate their illicit trade and prevent their diversion. Many achievements can be ascribed to its entry into force. At the same time, there remain areas in which the ATT can be improved or strengthened. This SIPRI Policy Report takes stock of five main aspects of the treaty: its scope, the application of its prohibitions and the risk-assessment criteria, its processes and forums, promotion of its universalization, and support for states’ implementation. The report elaborates a series of policy options to further strengthen these aspects of the treaty and proposes ideas that can be adopted, discussed and refined for further implementation.
Global Policy, 2014
The 2013 Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) offers the first comprehensive, global and legally binding standards on the trade and transfer of conventional arms. The idea for the treaty was conceived not in the boardrooms of weapons manufacturers, nor in the assembly halls of statecraft, but rather by civil society activists and Nobel Laureates – practitioners, academics, survivors and researchers and advocates. And its robust provisions on human rights, humanitarian law and gender were championed by states often marginalized by traditional arms control. The resultant treaty is a sort of ‘platypus’ of international law – simultaneously an arms control regime, an instrument of human rights and humanitarian law and a trade agreement. Given its widespread acceptance and likely rapid entry into force, it could have a wide-ranging impact on global policy making in many issue areas. But as with any new framework of global policy, the ATT represents a compromise, recognizing the legitimacy of states' rights to trade in weapons. This special section on the ATT, written from the perspective of scholars and practitioners associated with the civil society campaign that championed the treaty, reviews the ATT's normative implications, role of NGOs and implementation challenges.
Taking Stock of the Arms Trade Treaty: A Summary of Policy Options
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 2021
SIPRI Policy Brief. Many achievements can be ascribed to the entry into force of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) seven years ago. At the same time, there remain areas in which the treaty can be improved or strengthened. A stocktaking exercise conducted by SIPRI has resulted in the elaboration of a series of policy options to further strengthen five aspects of the treaty: its scope, the application of its prohibitions and the risk-assessment criteria, its processes and forums, promotion of its universalization, and support for states’ implementation. Taken together, these proposed measures represent a menu of options for ATT stakeholders.
The Last Chance for an Arms Trade Treaty?
GCSP Web Editorial, 2013
On 29 July 2012 the negotiations for an international arms trade treaty (ATT) ended without any tangible result. After years of preparation and a four-week negotiation conference, this was a cause for major disappointment. Indeed international arms trade is largely unregulated, which allows for an easy accessibility of arms that may cause a lot of harm in various regions of the world. A gleam of hope is the adoption on 24 December 2012 by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly of a resolution to resume negotiations in New York next March on a draft treaty which enjoyed broad support. American domestic considerations had prevented an early agreement. However, with President Obama’s re-election and his recent stand on toughening domestic gun control in the wake of the Newtown shooting, chances are that the opponents to international arms trade regulation will be sidelined.
The Arms Trade Treaty: An Interpretive Study
In April 2013, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to con-trol the virtually unregulated import, export, transit and brokering of conventional arms. The in-strument, a combined effort of UN Member States and civil society organizations, was drafted to create the highest possible common international standards. Nevertheless, it was met with mixed reviews. Some called it a victory for the world’s people and a powerful new tool, while others ar-gued that it contains major loopholes or even that it represents a historic and momentous failure. Taking on the presented praise and criticism, this study performs a critical jurisprudential analysis of the operational heart of the Treaty; the Articles regarding the scope, prohibitions and export of arms. To allow comparing how the different aspects of arms trade are regulated, the obligations of import, transit, trans-shipment States and States involved in brokering are also taken into account. Methodologically, this study relies upon the international rules concerning the interpretation of trea-ties as set forth in Articles 31–33 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, brief analysis of which is the starting point of the study. This study concludes that the Arms Trade Treaty contains major shortcomings: many supportive and autonomous weapon systems are excluded from its scope, ammunition and parts are not fully integrated, and most of the prohibitions just reaffirm pre-existing obligations. The Treaty sets rather a high threshold for not authorizing export, and the obligations of importing, transit, trans-shipment and brokering States are quite undemanding. Still, the ATT contains many novel and important el-ements, and it clearly has an operational heart: it covers a wider range of conventional arms than previous instruments, addresses the imperative to follow the resolutions of the UNSC and interna-tional agreements, and deals with the connection between arms, ammunition, international crimes, serious humanitarian law and human rights violations, terrorism-related offences and acts of trans-national organized crime. To determine the total worth of the instrument, further studies will be required to evaluate its practical effects on the behaviour of States Parties