On July 12 opened the first of four sessions of preparatory negotiations which should lead to the adoption in 2012 of a global and legally binding instrument establishing common standards for conventional arms transfers. Representatives of 192 States gathered until July 23 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, with the representatives of intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations.

Even though all States agree that transfers of conventional arms suffer from the current lack of international regulation, the debates expected for these first two weeks of negotiations could be difficult. States are expected to put on the negotiating table elements to include in a treaty such as defining the types of weapons and transactions, the objectives of such a treaty, its parameters, its implementation. All are issues subjected to intense negotiations.

L’équilibre à atteindre entre les positions des Etats ne parait donc pas acquis pour ce qui constitue plus qu’un exercice diplomatique de routine… Civil society, which is involved in the process since its beginning through the Control Arms campaign, will be particularly attentive to the adoption of a treaty that will reduce the human cost of irresponsible arms transfers.