Control Arms Campaign was launched in 2003 and has since gathered support for the Arms Trade Treaty from over a million people worldwide. In December 2006, 153 governments finally voted at the United Nations to start work on developing a global Arms Trade Treaty. Momentum for the treaty has been building ever since. In 2009, the UN General Assembly launched a time frame for the negotiation of the Arms Trade Treaty which includes several preparatory meetings, before the final negotiating conference scheduled for July 2-27, 2012. The conference will aim to ensure space for “negotiation of a legally binding instrument on the highest possible common international standards for the transfer of conventional arms”, thus ensuring the do so in order to save lives.

Fourth meeting of the B&H Council for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) was held in hotel Hollywood in Ilidza on June 21, 2012 . Meeting participants included 12 of 20 members of the Council. Participants to the meeting finalized the Program of Work 2012-2015 and reviewed first draft of the text of the Report on the implementation of the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities in B&H. It was agreed for all participants to send their comments and suggestions on the initial text to the B&H Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees.  

A conference on the global ban on cluster bombs has concluded with news that 650,000 cluster munitions stockpiled by States Parties’, containing 68.2 million explosive submunitions, have been destroyed.

The progress made by States on stockpile destruction is a huge achievement and a ground-breaking success, even though this treaty is only two years old. Destroying stocks before they’re used is at the heart of the Convention, as in large part this treaty is about preventing future tragedies from cluster bombs.

The second Intersessional Meeting of the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, held in Geneva last week, also saw Bosnia in Herzegovina announce it has destroyed all of its stockpiled cluster bombs, becoming the ninth State Party to do so.