Following a mass-engagement campaign on the arms trade across UNA Youth’s branches and networks, UNA Youth have formulated a set of recommendations for the UK's negotiating stance at the Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), taking place at the UN from 2 -27 July 2012.
Today these recommendations were submitted to Alistair Burt MP, Minister for Counter Proliferation at the Foreign Office.
We now look forward to hearing how the UK Government will take these recommendations (see PDF below) on board and thereby represent the voice of the UK’s young people at the UN Arms Trade Treaty Conference this July.
FCO youth event
Following the submission of the recommendations, a delegation from UNA Youth was invited to attend a youth-led event in Central London with FCO Minister Burt, as well as the UK's Head of Delegation, Jo Adamson, who leads the UK's ATT negotiations in New York. UNA Youth President Stephen Vanson led the UNA Youth delegation, alongside participants from the youth wings of other UK charities active on this issue, including Amnesty and Oxfam.
Background on the ATT
In 2006 an overwhelming majority of UN Member States voted to start work on the creation of a global Arms Trade Treaty. In July 2012 negotiations for the Treaty will take place in New York at the UN. For more than a decade, non-governmental organisations such as Oxfam, Saferworld, Amnesty International and UNA-UK have campaigned for the creation of a robust treaty with human rights and humanitarian law at its centre.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and as one of the lead countries to champion the need for an Arms Trade Treaty, the UK is in a strong position to use its influence to ensure that an effective treaty emerges from the negotiations in July.
