Amnesty International Scotland strongly welcomes this afternoon's debate by MSPs on the Arms Treaty, taking place at 5pm today (Thursday 21 June).

Watching the debate will be David Grimason, who earlier today met with the Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Moore MP, to urge the UK Government to continue its support and leadership of a global, comprehensive Arms Treaty. David will also be meeting with Roseanna Cunningham MSP and Jamie Hepburn MSP following the debate.

Jamie Hepburn MSP, who put forward the motion, said:

"This is an issue which I feel passionately about and so I am pleased that I have secured a members debate on it in the Scottish Parliament.

For too long the Arms has lacked adequate regulation and the current ease of access to arms contributes to the destabilisation of already volatile regions and increases the likelihood of human rights abuses. I firmly believe that if a common international standard were established and implemented then this would make it harder for these weapons to be used to suppress and abuse civilians throughout the planet.

I will therefore be urging my fellow parliamentarians to do all that they can to support the efforts of Amnesty and other campaigning organisations to persuade the international community to develop and adopt a strict regulatory code for the Arms."

The Members Debate will begin at 5pm in the Scottish Parliament Chamber.

More information

Briefing: Amnesty Scotland Arms Treaty Briefing 2012 (PDF)

Parliamentary motion:  Read the full motion on the Scottish Parliament website

For more on our work on arms, please see amnesty org.uk/arms /p>