Lobbying for an Arms Trade Treaty

Lina Holguin, works on the Control Arms Campaign and is based in Canada with Oxfam-Quebec. I come from Armenia, a small city in Colombia, and I never imagined that I would be meeting and lobbying diplomats at the UN. The first time I came to the UN was in June during the Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons. My NGO colleagues and I were very disappointed when governments did not reach an agreement, but like others, I never lose hope! Now I am back, with the energy and arguments needed to convince countries that they must act to stop the horrors caused by the easy availability of weapons. This is definitely the most empowering experience I have ever had. The Control Arms Campaign is in a lobby marathon to get a majority of governments supporting the ATT resolution that will be tabled on Wednesday by Costa Rica, Argentina, UK, Kenya, Finland, Australia and Japan. Our delegation consists of about 15 people, representing thousands around the world who are asking governments to establish an ATT based on human rights and humanitarian law. We have divided the regions we need to lobby, and I have focused on the Latin American countries because I am from the region and speak Spanish. Here, and in West African countries things are going well: several of them have already said they will co-sponsor the resolution. I also lobby francophone countries, particularly Canada, as this is where I live and where I have been working on the Control Arms Campaign since 2003. Yesterday it was encouraging to hear the Canadian delegation speaking in favour of referring to human rights in the resolution, but I am still waiting for them to say that they will also co-sponsor it. Canada said in June that they supported in principle the idea of an ATT, and has repeated it on other occasions. But now Canada needs to turn words into action! And this is how lobbying gets done ... The First Committee meets in conference room 4, a huge room in the basement of the UN building, with a chair assigned to every country. There are no windows and I think the only public building where you can smoke in New York is here at the Vienna Cafe outside conference room 4, where most of the lobby meetings take place. Every time a delegate comes out of the conference room, I approach them to deliver our messages and get information. You literally have to catch them as they run out, and you have to be ready to deliver the message in 2 minutes. If I talk to them in the conference room, I don’t know how they will react, but it is worth taking the risk. We have long days here at the smoky basement of the UN, but it is encouraging to see the commitment of all my colleagues that come from India, Senegal, France, Kenya, the UK and Italy. It is also empowering to see that our efforts are paying off and that the countries co-sponsoring the ATT resolution are hearing the voices of those who joined the Million Faces Campaign. I am glad I am here today to remind the country delegates that this is about real people dying and suffering every day because of the uncontrolled arms trade. I am glad I am able to contribute to a world of peace.