Henry Bellingham MP

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

King Charles Street

London SW1A 2AH

25 August 2011

Dear Henry
I am writing to you with regards to the ongoing talks at the UN regarding the proposed Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). First of all I would like to applaud the efforts of the FCO negotiating team, who have done a fantastic job of pushing for a strong treaty, and I hope that they continue to do so. During a recent meeting with us, representatives from Amnesty International reported that good progress has been made towards a strong treaty framework, with the UK taking a commendable leading role.
They did, however, report one concern. For a treaty of this nature to be effective, it must be enforced in a clear and transparent way. Arms transfers must be carefully and openly monitored to ensure that all parties are complying with the treaty. Amnesty raised concerns that UK representatives in New York were not pushing this element as hard as they could be.
I have long argued that the continued supply of arms to repressive regimes perpetuates conflict and needless suffering, and I feel that a strong ATT could help to limit this. It is sobering to consider that according to ‘Campaign Against the Arms Trade', in the year before the UN action in Libya, Britain alone supplied Gaddafi's regime with £213 million worth of weapons. This would not have been possible had a strong ATT been in place. This example demonstrates that a strong and transparent ATT would be very likely to help achieve Britain's foreign policy goals of preventing overseas conflict and promoting human rights. It should therefore follow that it is vital to push for the greatest possible level of transparency to ensure that the ATT is a success, and I hope that is what the FCO will be doing.

Yours sincerely,
 

Caroline Lucas, MP, Brighton Pavilion