ATT & Gender-Based Violence

“Member states should not consent to a compromised treaty that risks undermining existing obligations" reminded Sofia Tuvestad (WILPF Sweden) and Maria Butler (PeaceWomen/WILPF) in a recent article Make it Binding: Include Gender-based Violence in the ATT. States have started another round of negotiations on the proposed Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) from March 18- 29.

WILPF is working with a coalition of NGOs to strengthen the provisions for preventing gender-based violence. There is lots of work to be done to make sure GBV is not negotiated out of the text and that the current weak formulation is improved.
There has been a growing number of supporters for moving GBV from article 4(6) to mandatory section 4(2), based on our recommendations. As of today, 80 States have supported the strengthening of GBV in the text. The negotiation and discussion on GBV will continue for another week. Please do follow and get involved as this is a historic time to link arms control with the prevention of gender-based violence.

Our position has been clear: the current formulation in the draft text (preamble paragraph 11 andarticle 4(6)(b))

is not acceptable: it undermines the fact that acts of gender-based violence are violations of human rights (HR) and international humanitarian law (IHL).

Take Action and Sign the “Make it Binding” Petition today
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