An Aberdeen man’s campaign against the global arms trade is expected to pay off by the end of the year.
David Grimason has been working for weapons control since his two-year-old son Alistair was killed by a gunman in Turkey in 2003.
Since the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) opened for signatures in June last year, 118 countries have signed.
A group of countries will announce in New York today they have ratified the treaty, bringing the total to more than the required 50 for it to become international law.
Mr Grimason said: “The fact that 50 states have ratified it so quickly shows just how important this treaty is and just 90 days from today it will become international law.
“For me, this journey has been a highly personal one, my son was killed by a man with an illegal gun and everyone who loved him has suffered a terrible loss.
“Today brings hope that other families won’t have to experience that pain.”
Little Alistair was shot dead on a family holiday in Turkey. He was asleep in his pram in a cafe when an argument broke out at a nearby table and a man, with an illegal handgun, opened fire killing the toddler.
The ATT aims to regulate all transfers of conventional arms, ammunition, parts and components. It will impose a export ban where there is a knowledge the weapons could be used to perpetrate war crimes, genocide, attacks against civilians and other breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
Jamie Livingstone, head of Oxfam Scotland, said: “It is thanks to people like David Grimason that this treaty will soon become law. Over more than a decade he has campaigned for the world to join forces to tackle the illegal flow of arms.
“Every day, up to 2,000 people are killed by armed violence and millions more live in fear of rape, assault and displacement caused by weapons getting into the wrong hands.
“This human cost is truly disgusting and lives will be saved by this strong global action.”