Italy welcomes the positive outcome of the work on drafting an Arms Trade Treaty at the United Nations. After long negotiations, the text was supported by a broad coalition of over 150 countries, including Italy, who today approved a General Assembly Resolution establishing that the treaty will be open for signing on 3 June 2013 in New York.
This paves the way for an international legal framework governing the arms trade. The absence of such a framework until now has benefited those dealing in illegal arms trafficking, to the harm, above all, of civilian victims of armed conflict in the world’s most troubled regions.
The future treaty is a necessary step in the effort to provide coherence and vision in an endeavour that will bring together the international agendas for peace and security, legality, human rights and development.
For this reason, Italy has been engaged with its European Union partners, as part of a broad coalition of states from all continents, in supporting a just cause. A cause it has advocated with energy, along with the most committed elements of international civil society.
The text adopted represents a strong, balanced and realistic agreement that combines the demands of producer and importing countries with a marked improvement in the way one of the most sensitive issues in international relations is handled.
Efforts will now move to an international campaign to support the signing and ratification of the Treaty so that the world will at last have universal rules regulating a legitimate international trade in conventional arms.
