Work on an international Arms Trade Treaty will begin immediately following a historic vote in the UN General Assembly which saw 153 governments supporting a proposed treaty to prevent international arms transfers, human rights body Amnesty International said today.
Only the United States voted against the proposal, and 24 governments abstained in the vote.
Amnesty said the UN General Assembly vote comes just three years after the launch of the Control Arms campaign, which has seen over a million people in 170 countries calling for a Treaty.
"As part of the Control Arms campaign more than 10,000 people across Ireland called for tougher global arms controls by adding their photographs and self-portraits to the Million Faces visual petition, organized by Amnesty International and Oxfam," Amnesty said.
Three quarters of governments, including Ireland, voted in favour of the proposal, which was also supported by an overwhelming majority of governments in the UN General Assembly's First Committee in October.
"My current visit to Lebanon, Israel and the Occupied Territories has allowed me to see first hand the devastating consequences on civilians of the unregulated trade in weapons. It is vital that governments recognise the urgent need to turn this vote into meaningful action and ensure that a legally binding treaty on conventional arms becomes a reality," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
Amnesty said the US remained the only government to vote against the proposal, despite a recent appeal from 14 US Senators to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for the administration to reconsider its position.
"One of the first tasks for the incoming UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, will be to begin canvassing the views of all UN Member States on the proposed Arms Trade Treaty in order to report back to the General Assembly in late 2007. A group of governmental experts from around the world will then be established to examine the issue in detail and report back to the UN General Assembly in 2008."