Future:Media:Change

In October the United Nations were discussing the Arms Trade Treaty. At ConflictVoice we gathered a group of bloggers and campaigners to shine a light on the work of the snappily named “First Committee at the General Assembly of the United Nations”. This is the UN committee that deals with disarmament issues, so alongside discussion of nuclear disarmament and also, oddly, weapons in space, one of the main topics this year was whether the UN should start negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty.

This knotted gun sculpture was donated by Luxembourg to the UN in 1988 - 21 years later the UN finally decided to start negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty

These sessions are usually fairly staid with diplomats and NGOs engaging in intense discussions about detailed wording and the placement of commas in resolutions. This year we shook things up by inviting bloggers from around the world into the UN to engage with the process.

Inspired by G20Voice and ClimateVoice we brought in Rombo Kins, Kate Ausburn, Jen Nedeau and Janna Oberdorf to attend the discussions, interview ambassadors and tweet and blog about the issues, alongside a global community of bloggers from Afghanistan to AustraliaAustralia reviews.

Fearful ambassadors

The thought of having the bloggers speak to them was too terrifying for some diplomats and ambassadors who had to get permission from their capitals before they could even countenance talking to us.

The interesting thing is there were one or two exceptions. The UK ambassador John Duncan is very keen on Twitter Twitterand even hosted a joint event with Oxfam “Tweeting a Treaty” encouraging his fellow ambassadors to sign up. John was very open to speaking to the bloggers and was clear that he HAD to answer their questions, whereas one or two other ambassadors – Egypt’s for instance – got a rough ride.

He repeatedly tried to avoid the question of why his country would not support the Treaty and instead of having the luxury of being able to just move onto the next topic Rombo and Kate Ausburn took him to task on it.

The focus that the bloggers brought from their own experiences and interests meant that we developed debate around womenThe Women reviews, the distance of those who suffer from armed violence from the UN processes and the impact of violence on poverty and sustainable development.

They tackled head-on the mistaken idea that the Treaty would in some way affect the US second amendment gun rights. Having spent time in the UN, the bloggers were also well placed to explain the hot debate in diplomatic circles of how demands by the USA how the Treaty should be negotiated might cause a race to the bottom.

The world is watching

We live streamed events from inside the UN which brought a new dynamic to the meetings. Panellists and diplomats seem very used to the cosy club of the UN and are well practiced at answering questions from their peers. But suddenly having a small audience of normal citizens watching what they meant they had to up their game. It’s harder to fob off a viewer from Afghanistan asking a question about how the Arms Trade Treaty would affect his life than your diplomat drinking partner.

Impact through Twitter

The discussions around the Arms Treaty have been going on for years but it was noticeable that development of ConflictVoice and the involvement of people from outside the UN processes brought a broader focus to the debates. The recognition by ambassadors that doing something about the impact of the arms trade on real people helped to focus minds on their task.

It was clear in a discussion with a member of the UK delegation that the world of tweeting and blogging has shaken up the process of political negotiations. It makes it harder to develop quiet deals behind closed doors when you know someone at the back of the room could be tweeting away.

While the bloggers can’t claim the full credit for the UN finally moving to formal negotiations on the Arms Trade Treaty, shining a light into the murky world and backroom deals of UN diplomacy will continue to change the dynamics of the debate in the future.

Finally, if you’ve ever wondered what it looks and sounds like when 153 countries vote for an Arms Trade Treaty, your moment is in.