Nobel Peace Prize winner Óscar Arias Sánchez, former President of the Republic of Costa Rica, will hold a lecture on the International Arms Trade Treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on last 2 April and already signed by seventy countries. on Tuesday, 17 September at 16.30 at the Hall of Peace of the Community of Sant'Egidio,

The International Arms Trade Treaty obliges the contracting countries to impose rules for manufacturers of military equipment, to fight the illegal market and to regulate the export of conventional weapons. It was adopted at the United Nations General Assembly with 154 votes in favour, three against (Syria, North Korea and Itran) and 23 abstentions including Russia and China. The turnover of the legal arms trade amounts to 80 billion dollars a year.

Only yesterday, the Chamber of Deputies in Italy ratified the Treaty with a unanimous vote, writing "one of the most beautiful pages of the Italian parliament" as it was commented by Mario Marazziti, M.P., leader of Civic Choice in the Foreign Affairs Committee and first signer of the ratification bill. Óscar Arias Sánchez, President of Costa Rica from l986 to 1990 and then from 2006 to 2010, received the Nobel Prize in 1987 for his work for peace in Central America in the context of the initiatives promoted by the Contadora Group, which culminated with the agreement signed on 7 August, 1987 by the presidents of five central American States on the basis of a proposal made by himself. 

 The conference programme includes a greeting from Prof. Andrea Riccardi,, the founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio, an introduction by the ambassador of Costa Rica to the Holy See, Fernando Felipe Sánchez, and the intervention by Nobel laureate Oscar Arias Sánchez.