In the last 24 hours alone over 11,000 people have written to the UK government to help push through what could be the world's first ever multilateral Arms Trade Treaty.

The treaty would require arms exporters to meet a list of criteria preventing them from exporting weapons to regions in which international law is being regularly violated, destabilisation is taking place or the weapons can be sold on to other illicit markets.

Up to 1,000 people a day are killed down to the unregulated flow of firearms between nation states, chiefly amongst their victims are women and children living in some of the world's poorest countries. These weapons stoke the fire of already volatile political and sectarian conflicts both exasperating and lengthening the suffering of millions of innocent people. The so called 'conventional weapons' included in the treaty contain warships, battle tanks, fighter jets and machine guns. There is currently no set of internationally agreed standards to stop these weapons falling into the wrong hands.

There are four ways in which you can help get the treaty passed. Tell the Government to continue to close the treaties loopholes. Send Obama a strong message that the world desperately needs a strong treaty. And tweet the French government, encouraging them to continue fighting to close further loopholes. Finally, tell everyone you know to do the same.

Text by Sean Glynn