Campaign events in 2006

2006 was a landmark year for the Control Arms campaign. We made big progress convincing governments of the need for an Arms Trade Treaty, both in capitals and at the UN. We lobbied hard in June, when the United Nations held a conference to review the progress that had been made on the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons; and also in October, at the UN General Assembly's First Committee on Disarmament and Security, when a clear majority of governments voted in favour of starting work towards an Arms Trade Treaty, resulting in the historic vote of 153 States in favour (with only one against) in December 2006. 

To start the year, Control Arms launched two reports which detailed the devastating human cost of armed violence: Voices from Haiti, and Voices from Sierra Leone.

16th March was the start of a 100-day countdown to the world conference on small arms. Nobel Peace Laureates and celebrities publicly announced their support for an Arms Trade Treaty, and called on governments to take action to make it a reality.

Control Arms received support from an unlikely quarter when Lieutenant-General Mikhail Kalshnikov, inventor of the world’s most ubiquitous weapon, the AK-47, called for tougher controls on the arms trade. In AK-47: The World's Favourite Killing Machine, Control Arms revealed that Kalashnikov’s invention would remain the most widely-used weapon in conflict zones for at least the next 20 years because it is so poorly regulated.

Campaigners all around the world were busy collecting photos and self-portraits to make sure we reached our target of one million faces by June 2006, as well as handing over the petition to their own governments.

24 year-old Julius Arile Lomerinyang from Kenya became the Millionth Face on 22 June, joining one million people all around the world, including 85,000 other Kenyans calling for tougher controls on the arms trade. In July Julius joined other Control Arms campaigns in New York for the Small Arms Review Conference. On the opening day, he presented the Million Faces petition to UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

Despite the efforts of campaigners, a tiny minority of governments were able to block an agreement at the conference on global controls on the small arms trade. Control Arms condemned their actions, describing the conference as a ‘betrayal’.

Only weeks later, however, there was good news; seven governments tabled a resolution for discussion at the meeting of the UN General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and Security, calling for work to start towards a global, legally binding Arms Trade Treaty. Control Arms welcomed the proposal, but called on governments to include more references to human rights.

Campaigners were back at the UN in October to put pressure on governments to support the ATT resolution in the General Assembly; on the day it was tabled in the First Committee, 77 governments co-sponsored it, in a massive show of support for tougher controls on the arms trade.

A week later, Control Arms released a report showing how ammunition was still reaching rebels in the DRC, despite the country being subject to a UN arms embargo.

In a last push before the vote of the ATT resolution, campaigners swapped their suits for sweat pants in an attempt to go on the world’s fastest lobby, aiming to visit the New York offices of all 192 UN member states in 192 minutes, calling on the them to vote for the ATT.

And it paid off. 139 states voted in favour of the resolution on 27 October 2006 in the First Committee of the UN General Assembly and this was increased to 153 States voting in favour on 8 December 2006, confirming an overwhelming majority wanted a UN process to discuss a global ATT. It was the end of the beginning. The world had taken the first step towards a global, legally binding treaty to effectively control the deadly trade in conventional weapons and munitions.