A man whose toddler son was shot dead in a cafe in Turkey has met with the First Minister to discuss the campaign for a global treaty on the arms trade.
David Grimason, 40, has been campaigning for tighter controls on the trade of weapons since his two-year-old son Alistair was killed during a gunfight at a cafe in the seaside village of Foca in July 2003.
Alistair was asleep in his pram when an argument broke out at a nearby table and a man opened fire, killing the toddler from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire.
Mr Grimason, who now lives in Edinburgh, will travel with Oxfam and Amnesty International to UN talks in New York on Saturday. Crucial, month-long final negotiations get under way at the UN on Monday.
First Minister Alex Salmond has given his backing to the campaign and also pledged to call on the UN to push for a change at an international level.
Speaking during a meeting with Amnesty International at the Scottish Parliament, Mr Salmond said: "The Scottish Government is strongly supportive of an international arms trade treaty. Securing this kind of agreement among the nations of the world would mean a huge step forward in preventing human rights abuses.
"The unregulated arms trade has a significant and all too visible impact on men, women and children, particularly in vulnerable nations."
Mr Grimason said: "I am extremely heartened by the support which the Scottish Government has given to our campaign for a bulletproof Arms Trade Treaty. The people of Scotland have shown that this is something which is of vital importance and have campaigned strenuously for this treaty for nearly a decade.
"For me it has been a very personal campaign and it is incredible to think that we are now on the brink of finally achieving our goal - an Arms Trade Treaty which will save the lives of millions of people around the world."
Shabnum Mustapha, director of Amnesty Scotland, said: "It is absolutely bizarre that we have international treaties for items such as bananas, dinosaur bones and postage stamps; but when it comes to weapons and the horrific impact that an unregulated arms trade has on so many around the world, there is nothing."
