 The Arms Trade Treaty began as an idea in an NGO meeting in the 1990s.At the end of the decade, after successfully lobbying to bring about the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exporters, civil society groups worked with a group of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates to draft proposals for the regulation of the international arms trade.In 2001, they began to circulate a "Draft Framework Convention on International Arms Transfers" and sought the support of governments around the world.