The speed of change in today’s world has grown ever more astounding, but the tools of violence, and its underlying causes, remain essentially unaltered. With total arms deliveries in 2012 reaching over $50 billion, we face a threat of mass destruction more deadly than nuclear weapons. Firearms cause more than 300,000 deaths every year that are unrelated to armed conflicts.
And the world is doing little to nothing about it.
We have a rare opportunity to correct this injustice as the United Nations on Friday convenes a Final Diplomatic Conference to pass an arms trade treaty. The goal of this treaty is to establish binding universal standards for the international trade of conventional arms and to close the gaps in existing practices that too often allow weapons to fall into the hands of those who use them to violate fundamental human rights. Our aim is to prevent the destruction of lives.