Category: Rights in crisis

Thanks to the support of hundreds of thousands of concerned people, after nearly ten years of campaigning, we came extremely close to agreement on a global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in July this year. It’s not over yet – an ATT is within reach. And today sees the next step forward in the campaign, as […] Read more »

Australia is now a non-Permanent Member of the UN Security Council. After 26 years on the bench, on 1 January 2013 Australia will begin its two-year membership of the UN Security Council. Having worked so tirelessly to secure this seat, Australia now has a rare opportunity to play a key role in addressing the great […] Read more »

With just one day left in the negotiations for a legally binding Arms Trade Treaty, Oxfam Australia along with Amnesty International, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and World Council of Churches encouraged the Australian Government to make one final push to ensure a strong and robust instrument. A draft text was presented […] Read more »

There are just two days to go in the negotiations for the world’s first legally binding instrument to control the international trade in conventional arms. While there are currently less international controls on the trade in arms than bananas, the draft text before the UN is riddled with loopholes and ambiguities that will continue to […] Read more »

The first draft of the Arms Trade Treaty has finally arrived. Unfortunately, while there were some points to celebrate, the text reflected the compromises and blocks which some sceptical countries have been arguing for since the conference began. It appears the treaty has been reduced from a humanitarian action to simply a regulatory document defined […] Read more »

In Papua New Guinea, the devastating effects of small arms are well known. Their use – and mere presence – has facilitated tribal wars, gender-based violence and directly impeded the ability of PNG to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. My organisation has witnessed what happens when arms are involved in these conflicts: death, destruction of […] Read more »

Just 9 days are left until the end of negotiations to produce the world’s first legally binding Arms Trade Treaty. Can we maintain pressure on governments to secure a strong Treaty that actually makes a difference? In “A Short Film About Guns” Oxfam’s Louis Belanger teams up with Greek-Cypriot director Minos Papas, providing a chilling […] Read more »

Iconic artwork by graffiti artist Banksy has come to life to support an Oxfam campaign to regulate the weapons trade which kills one person every minute. News photographer Nick Stern, who has seen first-hand the devastating effect of armed violence, has recreated two of the artists’ famous works using real life lookalikes in support of […] Read more »

As these negotiations unfold over the next two and a half weeks, I believe there are five key questions governments will have to address. I will quickly introduce these issues here and write in more detail in the coming days and weeks. Question 1: How strong will the “criteria” be? Some governments want a strong […] Read more »

David Grimason has been calling for tighter controls on the trade of weapons since his two-year-old son Alistair was killed during a gunfight in 2003. The youngster was asleep in his pram when an argument broke out at a nearby table in a cafe in Turkey and a man opened fire, killing the toddler. On […] Read more »