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U.N. OKs Weapons Trade Treaty Resolution

Thursday, December 07, 2006

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
 
UNITED NATIONS — Over U.S. objections, the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution Wednesday that could lead to the first international treaty on controlling the trade in assault rifles, machine guns and other small arms.

The nonbinding resolution asks the secretary-general to seek the views of the 192-member General Assembly on the feasibility of a comprehensive treaty "establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms."

Global trade in small arms is worth about $4 billion a year, of which a fourth is considered illegal. The arms cause 60 percent to 90 percent of all deaths in conflicts every year.

The resolution asks the secretary-general to submit a report in the next General Assembly session, which starts in September 2007. It also asks the secretary-general to establish a group of government experts to examine the feasibility of a treaty based on the report.

Resolution advocates said they hope any final treaty would compel countries to officially authorize all weapons transfers, stiffen compliance with previous treaties related to conventional weapons while prohibiting weapons transfers with countries likely to use the arms to violate their citizens' rights.

The resolution was approved by a vote of 153-1 with 24 abstentions.

The United States was the only country to vote against it, despite an appeal from 14 Democratic senators to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the adoption of the resolution, noting that "unregulated trade in these weapons currently contributes to conflict, crime and terrorism, and undermines international efforts for peace and development," his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

When the resolution was approved by the assembly's legal committee over U.S. objections, Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said: "The only way for a global arms trade treaty to work is to have every country agree on a standard."

"For us, that standard would be so far below what we are already required to do under U.S. law that we had to vote against it in order to maintain our higher standards," he said.

The National Rifle Association has strongly opposed U.N. efforts at crafting a treaty to curb private ownership of small arms. The group has said such a treaty might embolden regimes that violate human rights to disarm their citizens and make popular uprisings against oppression impossible.

But human rights campaigners supporting the drive to regulate the arms trade welcomed the resolution's approval, though they said much work is left to be done before the final passage of any comprehensive compact.

"This indicates not only widespread recognition of the problem but also widespread political will to take action," Rebecca Peters, director of the International Action Network on Small Arms, said in a statement.

Jeremy Hobbs, director of Oxfam International, called the vote "a historic step," saying only five governments supported the concept of an arms trade treaty in 2003.

"Now governments must follow through and achieve a strong, effective treaty," Hobbs said. "Every day that they delay is another day when thousands of lives are wrecked by armed violence."