26 July 2012, Vol. 5, No. 17  Editorial: The ATT is needed for
saving lives, not profits Ray Acheson | Reaching Critical Will
of WILPF  Download full PDF  As delegations negotiating the arms
trade treaty (ATT) met behind closed doors on Wednesday, civil
society was busy advocating for key changes in the draft text
distributed on Tuesday. As it stands, the text is unacceptable
to those governments and NGOs demanding a robust treaty that
would be an effective tool for preventing the deadly
consequences of the poorly regulated international arms trade.
As noted in yesterday’s editorial, one of the major problems
with the current draft is that it allows arms exporting states
to ignore human rights (article 4). They can weigh the risk of
human rights violations against what they might perceive as a
benefit to “peace and security”. This means that governments can
continue exporting arms to human rights abusers if they have
other economic or political interests at play. This alone is
enough to render the treaty wor