New York: The 193-nation United Nations General Assembly is expected to pass the long-anticipated draft arms trade treaty today, after a UN conference failed to approve it in a vote requiring unanimity.
A document co-signed yesterday by 64 countries — including permanent Security Council members the United States, Britain and France — allows for the agreement to be approved by majority vote.
The move comes after North Korea, Iran and Syria last week opposed the agreement, which seeks to regulate international arms sales. The treaty, which has been seven years in the making, outlines global guidelines for the sale of arms aiming to prevent weapon trades that could potentially lead to violence.
The treaty needs a simple majority — or 97 votes if all 193 member states are present and voting — to pass. Mexico and other supporters of the treaty say they will easily get that and are hoping for something closer to a two-thirds majority.
It is possible that other countries in addition to Iran, Syria and North Korea that criticised the draft treaty last week — including India, Pakistan and Russia — will call for reopening negotiations on the text, but the treaty’s supporters say they will oppose such calls.
The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of any type of conventional weapon — light and heavy. It would also create binding requirements for nations to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure the munitions will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law; do not breach UN arms embargoes; and are not illegally diverted.
It would require governments to refuse to export weapons to countries that would likely use them to violate human rights and humanitarian law or commit genocide or other war crimes. It would also require governments to regulate arms brokering.
The draft treaty says the following weapon types will be covered: Battle tanks; armoured combat vehicles; large-caliber artillery systems; combat aircraft; attack helicopters; warships; missiles and missile launchers; small arms and light weapons, ranging from assault rifles to handguns.
Some rights groups have complained that the scope of weapons covered in the treaty is too narrow. It would not cover unconventional weapons like nuclear, chemical and biological arms. Separate treaties cover those.
According to the UN Office of Disarmament, the treaty will not do any of the following: Interfere with domestic arms commerce or the right to bear arms in member states; ban the export of any type of weapon; harm states’ legitimate right to self-defence; undermine national arms regulation standards already in place.
The National Rifle Association, the powerful US gun rights lobbying group, opposes the arms trade treaty. The group has vowed to fight the convention’s ratification by the US Senate if Washington backs it at the United Nations.
If approved by the General Assembly, countries will need to sign and ratify it. The treaty will enter into force 90 days after the 50th signatory ratifies it.
Agencies
