As part of the “100 Days of Speaking Out!”, a countdown to the treaty negotiations, Control Arms will regularly feature stories and profiles of different people who support a bulletproof ATT.
In less than one month, countries will gather at the Diplomatic Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, where they will negotiate the first legally binding global treaty to regulate transfers of conventional arms. Liberians United to Expose Hidden Weapons (LUEHW), a Control Arms coalition member in West Africa, is doing their part to make sure their country stands in support of the landmark treaty.
LUEHW is mobilizing in Liberia by calling on its government to support a treaty that would prevent international arms transfers that would be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of human rights or humanitarian law, or would seriously impair poverty reduction or socio-economic development.
J. Koffa Torbor, Executive Director of LUEWH, said the organization plans to speak with the three branches of Liberia’s government as well as local leaders. “Having experienced a brutal civil conflict fueled largely by the proliferation and misuse of illicit arms, it is incumbent upon government and people of Liberia to speak out loud and clear in total support of the Arms Trade Treaty, ” he noted in a press conference held in Monrovia last week.
As part of their efforts throughout this month, LUEHW will host a forum for government and civil society on the ATT as well as a roundtable discussion with Members of Parliament aimed at garnering additional signatures for the Global Parliamentarian Declaration. The Declaration has already been signed by 28 Liberian parliamentarians.