The final text of an Arms Trade Treaty is set to be negotiated in July 2012 at a diplomatic conference convened by the United Nations...there is no unified framework for regulating the international transfer of ‘conventional’ arms... [A] report [by Amnesty International] looks at the recent history of arms transfers to Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen, and highlights how a global ATT should aspire to fill the many loopholes that currently allow conventional arms transfers to be used for purposes of repression and human rights violation. [also refers to efforts to strengthen regulation of private military & security companies]