Control Arms Campaign

The Control Arms Coalition is a campaign jointly run by a coalition of over 100 organisations including Amnesty International, IANSA, Oxfam International and Saferworld.

A Control Arms campaigner with a picture of his son at a media stunt in New York.

The campaign began in 2003 calling for an international Arms Trade Treaty. Since then it has used a range of tactics to get its message across, including publicity stunts, mass public actions, petitions including the Million Faces campaign, worldwide public consultations, policy publications and the lobbying of politicians and diplomats across the world. The campaign began due to the lack of regulation in the international trade in arms. Control Arms has argued that the lack of controls on the arms trade is fuelling armed conflict, poverty and human rights abuses worldwide.

The process towards creating an international Arms Trade Treaty began in the United Nations in 2006. On April 2, 2013 the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to adopt an international Arms Trade Treaty.

Future of the campaign

The campaign seeks to build support among governments for an Arms Trade Treaty, a legal instrument that would prohibit arms from being exported to destinations where they are likely to be used to commit grave human rights violations. Such a treaty would require countries to comply with international human rights and humanitarian law standards when authorizing weapons transfers.

After three years' effort by campaigners all around the world, the Control Arms Million Faces petition has now reached its target of a million photographs. On 27 October, 2006, the campaign claimed a major success as governments at the UN voted in favour of a resolution to start work on an Arms Trade Treaty.

See also

• Arms Control Association
• Arms Reduction Coalition
• Campaign Against Arms Trade
• Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
• Council for a Livable World
• Small arms proliferation

External links

• The Control Arms Campaign