Government urged to support new Arms Trade Treaty
On 28 June MAPW joined with other Australian organisations to present the Government with petitions calling for international controls over the arms trade. Virtually all international trade in goods is regulated. But no globally agreed standards exist for the international arms trade.
Following a resolution passed by the General Assembly in 2009 a United Nations Conference on an Arms Trade Treaty will convene this week "to elaborate a legally-binding instrument on the highest possible common international standards for the transfer of conventional arms."
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has gone to New York to take part in the negotiations.
188 medical and public health professionals have signed an IPPNWi Medical Alert on Armed Violence petition to the United Nations to call for passage of a strong global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).
On 28 June MAPW joined with Oxfam Australia, Amnesty International and Act for Peace to hand over petitions signed by 31,400 Australians in support of a strong Arms Trade Treaty to Richard Marles MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs (the presentation is depicted below).
MAPW has made submissions to the Defence Export Control Office both as an individual organisation and as part of a coalition of Australian NGOs.
