Programme Co-ordinator of the Oxford Martin School Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations  Dr Gilles Giacca is closely following the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty in New York.

The renewed United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty opened on 18 March 2013 for a total of nine days. Optimism is running high that despite the very short time frame and the unseemly collapse of negotiations in July 2012, an agreement can be secured this time around. There is currently no international instrument that regulates the conventional arms trade. A multilateral treaty of global scope would close the gaps and inconsistencies that exist between the current range of domestic and regional arms export control systems. It remains to be seen whether further efforts in the next two weeks will reach consensus within the United Nations or if certain States may later decide to conduct negotiations outside the United Nations, in a similar way to which the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention or the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions were elaborated.

Insights and daily updates on the Arms Trade Treaty Legal Blog.

Link(s)

Gilles Giacca's profile page
Public International Law @ Oxford
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published Tuesday 19 March 2013