UN landmark resolution on controlling arms sales
UN in key step to arms treaty
Correspondents in New York
October 28, 2006
A UN General Assembly panel has overwhelmingly approved a landmark resolution aimed at controlling international arms sales.
A total of 139 countries supported the resolution, which had been endorsed by 15 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, during a vote in the UN General Assembly's first committee, which deals with disarmament.
Only the US voted against it.
The vote marks the first concrete step towards a global treaty to block the trade in conventional weapons that fuels conflicts and human rights violations and undermines development.
The treaty would aim to close loopholes in legislation on arms trade.
The passage of the resolution means work on the treaty can start early next year when the incoming UN secretary-general, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, sounds out UN member states on establishing the foundations of the pact.
The resolution sets up a group of governmental experts to look at the feasibility, scope and parameters of an arms trade treaty and report back to the assembly's first committee in 2008.
Countries that have indicated support for the treaty include three of the top six arms exporters - Britain, France and Germany; several emerging arms exporters such as Brazil, Bulgaria and Ukraine, as well as many nations devastated by armed violence, including Colombia, East Timor, Haiti, Liberia and Rwanda.
But other key arms exporters such as the US, Russia, China, India, Iran and Egypt are unlikely to back the treaty.
"This massive vote to develop a global arms trade treaty is a historic opportunity for governments to tackle the scourge of irresponsible and immoral arms transfers," said Kate Gilmore, Amnesty International's executive deputy secretary general.
"Any credible treaty must outlaw those transfers, which fuel the systematic murder, rape, torture and expulsion of thousands of people."
In a statement released before the resolution was debated, the Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including the Dalai Lama, South African archbishop Desmond Tutu, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and Amnesty International, pressed governments to support the treaty.
"We Nobel Peace laureates know that the main principle behind a global arms trade treaty is simple and unstoppable: no weapons should ever be transferred if they will be used for serious violations of human rights," said Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International.
"It is crunch time at the UN: governments should take a historic step to stop irresponsible and immoral arms transfers by voting to develop a treaty that will prevent the death, rape and displacement of thousands of people."
Early this month, a report backed by Amnesty International and British charity Oxfam warned that the globalisation of the arms industry had shed light on the shortcomings of legislation to control it.
The report, also supported by the International Action Network on Small Arms - an umbrella organisation of 600 private organisations - outlines how US, European and Canadian companies bypass laws regulating weapons trade by selling arms in detached pieces or by subcontracting their activities to local businesses.
AFP
To read the original article in The Australian, click on:
The Australian
Correspondents in New York
October 28, 2006
A UN General Assembly panel has overwhelmingly approved a landmark resolution aimed at controlling international arms sales.
A total of 139 countries supported the resolution, which had been endorsed by 15 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, during a vote in the UN General Assembly's first committee, which deals with disarmament.
Only the US voted against it.
The vote marks the first concrete step towards a global treaty to block the trade in conventional weapons that fuels conflicts and human rights violations and undermines development.
The treaty would aim to close loopholes in legislation on arms trade.
The passage of the resolution means work on the treaty can start early next year when the incoming UN secretary-general, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, sounds out UN member states on establishing the foundations of the pact.
The resolution sets up a group of governmental experts to look at the feasibility, scope and parameters of an arms trade treaty and report back to the assembly's first committee in 2008.
Countries that have indicated support for the treaty include three of the top six arms exporters - Britain, France and Germany; several emerging arms exporters such as Brazil, Bulgaria and Ukraine, as well as many nations devastated by armed violence, including Colombia, East Timor, Haiti, Liberia and Rwanda.
But other key arms exporters such as the US, Russia, China, India, Iran and Egypt are unlikely to back the treaty.
"This massive vote to develop a global arms trade treaty is a historic opportunity for governments to tackle the scourge of irresponsible and immoral arms transfers," said Kate Gilmore, Amnesty International's executive deputy secretary general.
"Any credible treaty must outlaw those transfers, which fuel the systematic murder, rape, torture and expulsion of thousands of people."
In a statement released before the resolution was debated, the Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including the Dalai Lama, South African archbishop Desmond Tutu, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and Amnesty International, pressed governments to support the treaty.
"We Nobel Peace laureates know that the main principle behind a global arms trade treaty is simple and unstoppable: no weapons should ever be transferred if they will be used for serious violations of human rights," said Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International.
"It is crunch time at the UN: governments should take a historic step to stop irresponsible and immoral arms transfers by voting to develop a treaty that will prevent the death, rape and displacement of thousands of people."
Early this month, a report backed by Amnesty International and British charity Oxfam warned that the globalisation of the arms industry had shed light on the shortcomings of legislation to control it.
The report, also supported by the International Action Network on Small Arms - an umbrella organisation of 600 private organisations - outlines how US, European and Canadian companies bypass laws regulating weapons trade by selling arms in detached pieces or by subcontracting their activities to local businesses.
AFP
To read the original article in The Australian, click on:
The Australian
posted by Pax Christi @ Saturday, October 28, 2006
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