Taking forward an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in the United Nations
In December 2006, the UK introduced the initial resolution calling for UN work towards an ATT. Since then we have maintained a leading global position in supporting the UN process.
The resolution was co-authored with 6 countries - Australia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Finland, Kenya and Japan.
We are continuing to work closely with NGOs, the defence industry, and internationally, to take this forward.
Current progress to an ATT
In October 2008, the UK and the 6 original co-authors introduced aresolution in the UN calling for further detailed work in 2009 in the UN on the ATT.116 countries agreed to co-sponsor theresolution. This means they fully support the text of the resolution and want to be associated with it.
A vote on 31 October 2008 approved the resolution.
88% of states present - a total of 147 countries - voted in favour. This confirms the overwhelming level of support for work towards an ATT.
18 states abstained from voting and only 2 - the US and Zimbabwe, voted against.
You can find out more about the progress on work towards an arms trade treaty from the FCO website.
What does the Resolution do?
The Resolution builds on the outcome of the previous UN work in 2007 and 2008 towards an ATT. That work culminated with a report by the Chair of the 28 member UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE), which was inAugust 2008.The Resolution allows for the whole UN membership to work up those elements of the GGE report where consensus could bedeveloped for inclusion into an eventual legally-binding treaty.
You can read the full text of the Resolution on the United Nations General Assembly website.
The UN process and submissions from states (including the UK’s views on an Arms Trade Treaty, which were submitted to the UN on 12 March 2007) are available on the UN Disarmament website.
UK Ambassador for Arms Control and Disarmament
"[An ATT] has to be as universal as possible. Some of us are manufacturers, but all nations are suppliers at one stage or another. And it's by closing those loopholes that we can stop arms flowing into the hands of criminals and terrorists."
John Duncan, Britain's ambassador for multilateral arms control and disarmament. Read his full statement: Conventional Weapons Cluster 21/10/2008 (PDF 64KB)
Find out about the work of the UK ATT team, led by Ambassador John Duncan, on John Duncan's blog.
ATT re-launch
The Foreign Secretary re-launched the UK’s ATT strategy on 9 Sep 2008.
Watch video clips from the ATT event on the FCO YouTube channel: ATT YouTube playlist
Arms Trade Treaty newsfile
Useful Links
UK Mission to the UN
UK Mission to the UN, Geneva
UK Arms Control and Disarmament
