Take action on arms - tell William Hague not to compromise

Update, 15 Feb

Great work… Following your tweets and Facebook messages we have seen four positive interventions from the UK government at the Arms Trade Treaty Prep Comm so far. So the pressure from all of you on the UK government to show greater leadership is working. The head of the UK delegation said “I want to reiterate that the United Kingdom seeks a robust and effective, legally binding Arms Trade Treaty….it remains our strong commitment now and you will see it from the UK team this week. I work in the Foreign Office where ministers have changed over this time but the strong commitment of the government to the ATT has never changed”. (their emphasis)

But we still need a strong commitment on human rights to be heard loud and clear from the UK government by the end of the week. So we have decided to go straight to the top.

While we are really heartened by the UK re-energising its leadership, David Cameron is still strangely silent. It’s time to turn our focus back to him and Nick Clegg – if you’ve not already, take our email action today and add your voice.

P.S. We are now talking to the Foreign Office about setting up a live chat with William Hague before the final negotiations in July, we'll keep you posted on the details.

Take action - tell the UK government we can't compromise on human rights

This week representatives of countries around the world are in New York busy working out the first ever treaty aimed at controlling the deadly arms trade. The decisions they make could quite literally save lives – or not.

On the eve of these negotiations, UK Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt stated that ‘there would have to be compromises’. We’re fine with compromises, these are negotiations after all. But the atrocities being committed in Syria are a timely and tragic reminder of the suffering that comes with irresponsible arms transfers.  

We need to send a strong message to the negotiators: Do not compromise on human rights.

Email Clegg and Cameron now