UN Arms Treaty Blocked

US SENATORS LEAD
BLOCKING MOVE ON
UN ARMS TREATY:

WASHINGTON, 26.07.12 — A bipartisan group of 51 senators threatened to oppose a global treaty regulating international weapons trade if it falls short in protecting the constitutional right to bear arms.

In a letter to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Senators expressed serious concerns with the draft treaty that has circulated at the United Nations, saying that it signals an expansion of gun control that would be unacceptable to them.

The world’s nations are pressing to complete the first legally binding treaty dealing with arms trade and preventing the transfer of weapons to armed groups and terrorists. The 193-member U.N. General Assembly is expected to approve the treaty this month.

The senators said as the negotiations continue, “we strongly encourage your administration not only to uphold our country’s constitutional protections of civilian firearms ownership, but to ensure — if necessary, by breaking consensus at the July conference — that the treaty will explicitly recognize the legitimacy of lawful activities associated with firearms, including but not limited to the right of self-defense.

“As members of the United States Senate, we will oppose the ratification of any Arms Trade Treaty that falls short of this standard,” they wrote.The Senators insisted that the treaty should explicitly recognize the legitimacy of hunting, sport shooting and other lawful activities.They also raised concerns that the draft defines international arms transfers as including transport across national territory while requiring the monitor and control of arms in transit.The National Rifle Association opposes the treaty, saying its members will never surrender the right to bear arms to the United Nations.

The treaty has been in the works since 2006. Abandoning the Bush administration opposition, the Obama administration supported an assembly resolution to hold this year’s four-week conference on the treaty.In April, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, Thomas Countryman, reiterated U.S. support for a treaty:

“We want any treaty to make it more difficult and expensive to conduct illicit, illegal and destabilizing transfers of arms,” he said. “But we do not want something that would make legitimate international arms trade more cumbersome than the hurdles United States exporters already face.”

Last week, the delegates who attended the Arms Trade Treaty Conference (ATT) did not come to a consensus to ratify the ATT, but, rather will come back to the issue later this year.
Further talks will likely take place at a UN General Assembly (UNGA) meeting wherein 192 nations could achieve the 2/3rd majority vote for ratification of the ATT. According to a British delegation member: “We feel that we could have agreed (a treaty). It is disappointing that more time is needed. But an arms-trade treaty is coming – not today – but soon. We’ve taken a big step forward.”

Although activists in support of a convention for global gun control advocated the need to prevent illicit trade of guns into conflicted zones, such as in Syria, those same activists blamed the US and Russia for causing a stalemate during the negotiations process.Victoria Nuland, US Ambassador to the UN released a statement on the US State Department website wherein it was admitted that “the illicit trafficking of conventional arms is an important national security concern for the United States.”

The US has committed to an ATT that works towards a contribution “to international security, protect the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade, and meet the objectives and concerns that we have been articulating throughout the negotiation” and the US government believes that the ATT “will make a valuable contribution to global security by helping to stem illicit arms transfers, and we will continue to look for ways for the international community to work together to improve the international arms transfer regime so that weapons aren’t transferred to people who would abuse them.”

The stance of the US government, in rejecting signature of the ATT over the trafficking of illicit arms directs the purpose of the CIA and Obama administration’s involvement in arming terrorist groups in order to facilitate foreign policy objectives in the Middle East with regard to the current situation in Syria and ultimately Iran. In the background, the massive US arms industry with its funding of Senators and Congressmen/women, whose constituencies host arms manufacture, continues to frustrate UN efforts to clamp down on the illegal arms trade which causes killing and oppression in countries with political instability and weak law enforcement. Aided and abetted by the political lobbyists of the NRA who fund opposition to US lawmakers who favour stricter gun control.

FearFeasaMacLéinn

Áth Cliath/Dublin

Iúil/July 30 2012