Control Arms has been campaigning for 3 years for tougher control over the arms trade with the help of ordinary people like you and me.

After three weeks of campaigning in New York and three years of campaigning around the world, the Control Arms campaign achieved a massive victory on Thursday when the UN General Assembly’s First Committee passed a resolution to finally start work on an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

Find out more about the resolution and Control Arms activities at the United Nations.

“In a highly significant display of support for establishing common standards on the international arms trade, 116 governments from around the world had officially endorsed the resolution entitled ‘Towards an Arms Trade Treaty’ before it was voted on. The resolution then received resounding support with 139 governments out of 164 voting in favour. Governments now have an opportunity to create a treaty that will help make a real difference to the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives are devastated by armed violence every year.

Specifically, the resolution commits the UN to set up a Group of Governmental Experts to establish the basis for “a comprehensive, legally-binding instrument establishing common standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms” – an Arms Trade Treaty. There is still a long way to go until the treaty comes into effect, but this is an enormously important first step and progress on this resolution has been very quick in UN terms.
Control Arms not have reached this point without the support of the more than one million people who have joined the Million Faces, and the thousands of dedicated and creative campaigners who have worked so hard on the campaign.

Congratulations!” ~ The Control Arms Team