Category: Rights in crisis

There are just two days to go in the negotiations for the world’s first legally binding instrument to control the international trade in conventional arms. While there are currently less international controls on the trade in arms than bananas, the draft text before the UN is riddled with loopholes and ambiguities that will continue to […] Read more »

The first draft of the Arms Trade Treaty has finally arrived. Unfortunately, while there were some points to celebrate, the text reflected the compromises and blocks which some sceptical countries have been arguing for since the conference began. It appears the treaty has been reduced from a humanitarian action to simply a regulatory document defined […] Read more »

In Papua New Guinea, the devastating effects of small arms are well known. Their use – and mere presence – has facilitated tribal wars, gender-based violence and directly impeded the ability of PNG to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. My organisation has witnessed what happens when arms are involved in these conflicts: death, destruction of […] Read more »

Just 9 days are left until the end of negotiations to produce the world’s first legally binding Arms Trade Treaty. Can we maintain pressure on governments to secure a strong Treaty that actually makes a difference? In “A Short Film About Guns” Oxfam’s Louis Belanger teams up with Greek-Cypriot director Minos Papas, providing a chilling […] Read more »

Iconic artwork by graffiti artist Banksy has come to life to support an Oxfam campaign to regulate the weapons trade which kills one person every minute. News photographer Nick Stern, who has seen first-hand the devastating effect of armed violence, has recreated two of the artists’ famous works using real life lookalikes in support of […] Read more »

As these negotiations unfold over the next two and a half weeks, I believe there are five key questions governments will have to address. I will quickly introduce these issues here and write in more detail in the coming days and weeks. Question 1: How strong will the “criteria” be? Some governments want a strong […] Read more »

David Grimason has been calling for tighter controls on the trade of weapons since his two-year-old son Alistair was killed during a gunfight in 2003. The youngster was asleep in his pram when an argument broke out at a nearby table in a cafe in Turkey and a man opened fire, killing the toddler. On […] Read more »

On 3rd July 2012 the Control Arms campaign handed over a global petition to the United Nation’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for a strong Arms Trade Treaty. Read more »

Today in New York, Control Arms campaigners handed over the Speak Out petition on the Arms Trade Treaty to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, signed by over 521,000 people worldwide. The petition calls on world governments involved in the Arms Trade Treaty Negotiations this month to secure a strong, effective treaty that prevents irresponsible arms […] Read more »

International artists including Kristin Davis, Keira Knightley, Yoko Ono, Scarlett Johansson, Coldplay, Tim Roth, Annie Lennox and Kevin Spacey have joined forces to demand governments take immediate action to help improve regulation of the international arms trade. The stars combined to send a joint letter to Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations urging […] Read more »