On the penultimate day of the ATT negotiations, we got the media’s attention early morning with a helicopter assembled on a New York rooftop, with the UN in the background.
Monday started with a press conference, where it was made clear to the world that the text on the table was not something that was going to have a major impact on the ground. In the plenary negotiators received Control Arms postcards that let them know the second draft text, released Friday, is not the treaty we’ve worked over a decade for.
We worked intensely with supporter governments throughout Saturday and Sunday, analysing the second text, and strategizing with the progressive states, in a multitude of meetings. 103 States, lead by Ghana to delivered a powerful joint statement that the treaty text had taken a step backward and that it was not good enough. We got a lot of resultant media around this, such as these Guardian and Reuters articles.
On the ground campaigning continued with delegates welcomed into the UN on Tuesday by a Control Arms Gospel Choir singing ‘ ‘Little Less Conversation a Little More Action’ .
Campaigners passed out bullet shaped cookies to encourage delegates to “bite the bullet” and agree a strong ATT. This morning we handed out water bottles urging them to agree on a water tight treaty.
24 hours to go in these negotiations!