Traité sur le commerce des armes

In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly requested the UN Secretary-General to establish a group of governmental experts to look into “the feasibility, scope and draft parameters for a comprehensive, legally binding instrument establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms”.  

The report of that group, concluded in 2008, prompted the General Assembly to start discussions focused on a possible arms trade treaty, open to all UN Member States. At the end of October 2009, after years of discussions and debates, the vast majority of governments – 153 in total – agreed on a timetable to establish a "strong and robust" Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) with the "highest common standards" to control international transfers of conventional arms.  There is currently no global treaty on the conventional arms trade. Preparatory committee meetings are foreseen from 2010 to 2012, leading to a diplomatic conference in 2012 which could adopt an ATT.  

The Academy ATT research team has been following the preparatory discussions of the future Arms Trade Treaty. The first of the four planned preparatory committees (PrepComs) took place at the United Nations in New York on 12–23 July 2010 and the second on 28 February to 5 March 2011. A daily blog from the two PrepComs with additional information, documentation, and links has been uploaded to http://armstradetreaty.blogspot.com. The next PrepCom will be held on 11–15 July 2011. The diplomatic conference to negotiate the treaty is scheduled for four weeks in the summer of 2012.