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NewsUN ATT Gen AssmblyICOMAM gains exemptions from the Arms TradeTreaty for some museumsKenneth L. Smith-Christmas ICOMAM Executive Board MemberThrough intense lobbying efforts at the United Nations,ICOMAM has been able to gain exemptions from therequirements of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) for nationallevelmuseums, and for museums, collections, and historicsites that are sponsoring events or conducting loans onbehalf of a nation. This success has been the result of manyyears of activity on the part of several ICOMAM members,including its past chairman, Mr. Guy Wilson, at firearmsregulations conferences all over the world. When this effortwas re-energized in 2011, it gained new momentum by early2012, at which time an appeal to exempt ‘antique’ arms wassent to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) PreparatoryCommittee’s (PrepComm) chairman, and ICOMAM’s positionstatement was read during the ATT PrepComm’s February2012 meeting in New York City.After the unexpected dissolution of the ATT conferenceat the United Nations’ Headquarters in July 2012, ICOMAMplanned once again to write a letter to the new chairman ofthe ATT conference that was scheduled to occur in mid-March, 2013. Although ICOMAM’s position paper had beenpresented to the PrepComm at the conference in July, itapparently had no effect, even though national-level militarymuseums in Sweden, Austria, and Belgium had, on veryshort notice, promptly contacted their national ATTdelegates in support of ICOMAM. While waiting for theannouncement of the new ATT chairman, ICOMAM drafted aletter to Dr. Hans-Martin Hinz, president of ICOM, andrequested ICOM’s support in this endeavor. Shortlythereafter, Mr. Piet de Gryse, ICOMAM’s chairman, sent aletter to His Excellency Mr. Peter Woolcott, the new ATTchairman, and Australian ambassador to the UN in Geneva.In early October 2012, the First Assembly (FA) of the UNissued a statement that endorsed the verbiage of the Julydraft (again not including any exemptions for ‘antique’ arms)and set the stage for the March 2013 conference. The FAwas scheduled to meet at the end of October and would10 MAGAZINE ISSUE 10