General Assembly backs fresh talks on arms-trade treaty

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly yesterday to hold a conference in March to try to reach agreement on a UN treaty to regulate the multibillion-dollar global arms trade. A resolution, approved by vote of 133-0 with 17

a abstentions, will bring the 193 UN member states back to the negotiating table following their failure to reach agreement on a treaty in July.

Hopes of reaching a treaty in July were dashed when the United States said it needed more time to consider the proposed treaty – and Russia and China then also asked for a delay.

The draft treaty under consideration does not control the domestic use of weapons in any country, but it would require all countries to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms and to regulate arms brokers. It would prohibit states that ratify the treaty from transferring conventional weapons if they would violate arms embargoes or if they would promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

In considering whether to authorise the export of arms, the draft says a country must evaluate whether the weapon would be used to violate international human rights or humanitarian laws or be used by terrorists, organised crime or for corrupt practices.

Many countries, including the US, control arms exports but there has never been an international treaty regulating the estimated US$60 billion (NZ$73b) global arms trade.

For more than a decade, activists and some governments have been pushing for international rules to try to keep illicit weapons out of the hands of terrorists, insurgent fighters and organised crime.

The National Rifle Association, the powerful gun-rights lobbying group in the United States, has portrayed the treaty as a threat to gun ownership rights enshrined in the US Constitution.