Seven nations take global arms trade treaty to the UN

The governments of seven countries took a joint step which could, eventually, lead to a treaty controlling the international commerce of conventional firearms.  In the wake of the Review Conference for the United Nations Program of Action on Small Arms held last month, Argentina, England, Australia, Costa Rica, Finland, Japan and Kenya drafted a resolution which is the first step towards developing an agreement to regulate the global transfer of arms.

The outcome of the conference at the UN headquarters in New York was disappointing for the majority of countries that defend arms control, and the failure to reach a consensus prevented the drafting of a final document. The meeting fell short of its goal of determining concrete measures to be taken in the next five years to prevent armed violence.

For Rebecca Peters, director of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), the meeting was an opportunity to renew the global agenda on small arms control.  “One of the reasons for the failure of the convention was that a few countries vetoed the agreement based on several key issues. One of these issues was the control of the international trade of small arms and light weapons,” Peters explained.

The United Nations Program of Action (PoA) proposes a series of measures to combat the proliferation of firearms, such as regulating arsenal management, destroying weapons and weapons surplus, and harmonizing laws and public policy related to arms control among states.

However, according to Control Arms, an international campaign jointly run by Amnesty International, IANSA and Oxfam, responsible for firearms control campaigns in more than 50 countries, the Program of Action was lacking in several respects.  Among its shortcomings, the PoA failed to consider issues of gender or human rights in depth; it did not take into account the possession of arms by civilians and the transfer of arms to non-state actors; and finally, it is not legally binding.  The countries that sign it cannot be charged or punished for their failure to comply.

The letter goes beyond PoA proposals

The letter sent out to United Nations member states contains the draft of a resolution for the control of the traffic of all types of conventional arms, not only small arms and light weapons, as specified in the PoA.

As British diplomat Guy Pollard explained, the resolution proposes the creation of a group of governmental specialists to assess the viability, scope, and parameters of a treaty to regulate these transfers.  “If this resolution is approved during the upcoming UN General Assembly in October, we can expect to see the first results of its work in 2008,” predicted Pollard, representative of the British mission for disarmament in Geneva.

In the Program of Action Review Conference, the issues raised for discussion during sessions had to be approved by all countries in order to appear in the final document.  If one country disagreed, the measure could not be approved.  In the case of the General Assembly, in contrast, decisions are made based on majority vote.

According to Peters, there is a considerable chance that the proposal is approved in the General Assembly, since the majority of countries support the creation of a global treaty of this nature.  “To give you an idea, 50 countries present at the July convention were in favor of establishing an international treaty, and another 70 supported the general idea of greater control of the transfer of arms,” Peters explained.

Rebecca Peters is optimistic. In her view, the proposal forwarded by the seven countries goes beyond UN PoA suggestions, addressing the international transfer not only of small arms, but also of war tanks, airplanes, and helicopters.  For Peters, the inclusion of human rights issues in the PoA was essential, as it made the direct link between the use of small arms and the violation of human rights in countries in conflict.  As the Program of Action now stands, governments agree to manage their arms transfers based on their obligations under international law, without specifying the nature of the obligations.

Peters noted another issue that will probably be raised in the General Assembly in October: the agenda of the next United Nations Review Conference on Small Arms and an assessment of progress made on the Program of Action.  Attempts to establish subsequent meetings for the discussion of these issues were blocked by several countries during the July conference. “We hope that the resolution will be approved, and that we are able to have another meeting in 2007 or 2008 in which we will try once again to obtain recognition by all countries of the principles for the global transfer of arms,” she concluded.

Click here to see the complete UN Plan of Action on small arms