Arms Trade Treaty

As dubious practices in the fields of trade in arms and conventional military equipment were revealed throughout the 1980s’- especially during the first Gulf war, international reflection on the necessity of multilateral agreements in order to control arms transfers between States was encouraged. First issued in 1995 as a Code of Conduct on international arms transfers, the idea of a legally binding international instrument was then supported by the civil society and gradually backed up by an increasing number of States. In the following years, a real movement in favour of a more fair trade in arms emerged. In 2006, the UN addressed this problem by putting the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) issue on its agenda. The General Assembly launched the still on-going official negotiations on the treaty at the end of 2009.

The goal of the Treaty is to control the States arms transfers by setting “strong common international standards”, in order to solve the issues emerging from the absence of regulation on trade in conventional arms and to prevent arms diversions to the illicit market. These common standards would require setting up national export, import, and arms transfers control systems. Besides this goal, for numerous States, the ATT should make States aware of their responsibilities regarding trade in arms.

Since 2006, GRIP has monitored these historical negotiations and frequently published analyses on their progress.