John Duncan

Arms Trade Treaty: Guest Blog from Kate Allen, Director Amnesty (UK)

This article is written by Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK. The views expressed here are Amnesty's and do not necessarily represent the views of the British Government.

Today’s special event at the Foreign Office, where Amnesty school, colleges and university group members will meet government representatives to discuss plans and aspirations for an Arms Trade Treaty, is particularly inspiring and extremely important for us here at Amnesty International.

It signifies the benefits of assiduous and unfaltering campaigning by young people across the UK who have supported the call for an international Arms Trade Treaty by Amnesty International and our partners in the Control Arms Campaign – Oxfam and IANSA. 

Without tireless efforts from school and student groups the Control Arms Campaign would not have been able to have achieved what it has so far.

An effective Arms Trade Treaty is long overdue. Latest figures reveal that armed violence kills approximately 740,000 people each year – that’s more than one person every minute of every day.
 
About one in three of all serious human rights violations reported by Amnesty involves the use of arms and guns are used in 85 per cent of all killings around the world.

Such shocking statistics have probably compelled many young people to take action and to press for an Arms Trade Treaty.  I am delighted to see so many and such a variety of creative products and petitions from our school and student groups urging the UK Government to push at international level for this important Treaty. Such efforts have led to the significant progress we’ve seen internationally so far.

Through the efforts of the UK Government and other supportive governments in 2006, there was international agreement to support the idea of an Arms Trade Treaty, and last year 137 governments voted to start formal discussions on the Treaty.

Pressure from school, college and university Amnesty groups has clearly been valuable for the UK Government in making such progress on an international level.  But despite such achievements, we cannot afford to lose sight of the fact that there is a long road ahead before an effective Arms Trade Treaty is in place. 

The Arms Trade Treaty has to be robust enough to save lives.  It has to ensure that upholding human rights is at its core, and it must be based on the golden rule that arms must never be supplied where they are likely to be used to commit human rights violations.

Without such watertight rules, the Treaty will be next to useless.

A lot still hangs in the balance for the development of an effective Treaty, and so the Control Arms Campaign still needs the tireless efforts and creativity of our young campaigners to secure strong international legislation.

Today’s meeting is a real milestone for the scores of students and school-pupils who will meet UK Government representatives. We hope that it will inspire and reinvigorate both our young campaigners and the UK Government to continue to achieve a successful, robust and effective international Arms Trade Treaty.  

Posted at 14:07 15 June 2009 by John Duncan  |  Comments[0]