Leading Human Rights Expert to visit New Zealand

Amnesty International’s Senior Director of International Law and Policy, Widney Brown, will visit New Zealand ahead of the upcoming Arms Trade Treaty negotiations.

She will be speaking at a public meeting this Sunday, 10 June on the atrocities occurring in Syria to highlight why the world needs an effective Arms Trade Treaty.

What: Public Meeting
As one of the world’s leading human rights experts, Widney will explore the details surrounding the deadly arms trade.

Who: Widney Brown - Senior Director of International Law and Policy – Amnesty International

Date: Sunday 10 June, 2012 from 4.00pm

Where: Algie Lecture Theatre, 2nd Floor, Building 801 at the University of Auckland Law School, 9-17 Eden Crescent, Auckland

Background: The Arms Trade Treaty is a potentially ground-breaking humanitarian treaty to regulate the international trade in conventional weapons. The Treaty will be negotiated at a United Nations conference in New York in July 2012.

There is currently no effective international legislation on the global arms trade – the trade in bananas sees more regulation than the trade in bullets, yet armed violence kills up to 2,000 people every day.

Patchy, diverse and often completely absent, national regulations are inadequate with the increasingly globalised nature of the arms trade. New Zealand is in a position to influence negotiations and has a duty to our Pacific neighbours to ensure the treaty is international in scope, strong and binding.

Resources: More information is available at http://www.amnesty.org.nz/armstrade