Rights Groups Warn Against Diluted Arms Trade Treaty





UNITED NATIONS, Feb 18, 2012 (IPS) – After a week of tense negotiations, a United Nations
preparatory committee concluded a final round of talks on
Friday to define the rules of procedure for a global Arms
Trade Treaty (ATT), which is expected to be finalised in July
this year.

The ratification of the report by committee chair Ambassador Roberto
Moritan of Argentina closed the last of four prepcoms held since 2010
to lay the groundwork for the ATT negotiations.

The report includes a “non-paper” by Moritan that will be the basis
of this summer’s talks.

Human rights groups expressed cautious optimism about the outcome.

“This document fits 70 percent of our recommendations,” Aymeric
Elluin of Amnesty International told IPS.

But the agreement on a vote by consensus, meaning that every state
has veto power, may deeply compromise the adoption of a comprehensive
treaty, he warned.

“There is a real risk for the final text of ATT not to be adopted in
July,” he added. “Negotiations on the content will be extremely
difficult.”

Need for a legally binding instrument

The current crackdown on protesters in Syria and other countries in
the Middle East and North Africa has underlined the absence of any
global regulation on the conventional arms trade, allowing arms to
end up in the hands of human rights abusers, according to human
rights groups.

“The ATT concerns the biggest treaty negotiation in the field of
control arms, excepting the nuclear weapon,” Brian Wood, Amnesty
International’s manager for arms control, told IPS. “It is
all about
saving lives and human rights.”

According to the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, “The
global trade in conventional weapons – from warships and battle tanks
to fighter jets and machine guns – remains poorly regulated. No set
of internationally agreed standards exist to ensure that arms are
only transferred for appropriate use.”

“Many governments have voiced concern about the absence of globally
agreed rules for all States to guide their decisions on arms
transfers. That is why they have started negotiating an Arms Trade
Treaty.”

Nearly every country in the world has some degree of involvement in
the arms trade, as an importer or exporter, or in permitting arms
shipments to transit through their territorial waters.

The United States is by far the biggest weapons manufacturer,
followed by Russia, the “Big Three” in Europe – Germany, France,
Britain – and China.

India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are all leading importers – but so
are some of the major producers, such as the United States.

Concerned about the unchecked proliferation of weapons, in 2009, the
U.N. General Assembly decided to convene a Conference on the Arms
Trade Treaty in 2012 “to elaborate a legally binding instrument on
the highest possible common international standards for the transfer
of conventional arms”.

Political chess game

“As we have seen in the case of Syria, veto power leads to inaction
and hampers the ability of the international community to prevent
conflict,” said Jeff Abramson, coordinator of the Control Arms
Coalition, referring to the recent paralysis in the U.N. Security
Council.

“The will of the majority here who wants to see the arms trade
brought under control must not be thwarted by a minority set on
delaying and confusing the process,” he stressed.

He added that countries that were the most supportive of veto power
over the final draft document included Syria, Cuba, Iran and the
United States.

“Lives and livelihoods continue to be destroyed by an arms trade that
is out of control, and the majority of governments that want to see a
truly ‘bulletproof’ treaty must not be blocked by a small minority
with vested interests,” he said.

Russia, China and the United States are all pushing their own agendas
and oppose the integration of human rights into the treaty.

The U.S. opposes the inclusion of munitions, China wants to exclude
small arms, and Russia wants a treaty regulating the illicit arms
trade only.

“It is also deplorable that Russia argues it is responsible to
continue sending weapons to a regime (Syria) that is bombarding its
citizens,” said Abramson.

“A strong ATT with robust human rights criteria would make clear that
arms transfers must not occur when there is a substantial risk of
them being used to kill civilians and commit human rights abuses,” he
said. “The sale of any arms to Syria right now is simply appalling.”

Mounting call for human rights protections

Civil society groups are urging strong rules that protect human
rights and bar arms from being sent to those who likely to use them
against civilian populations.

“It is about regulation and prevention based on risk assessment,”
Wood told IPS.

“All types of arms should be included,” he said, including small arms
and munitions.

On Feb 14, a group of Nobel Peace Laureates also called for the
broadest possible criteria, scope and implementation mechanisms for
an effective Arms Trade Treaty.

At a press conference held at United Nations headquarters, the former
president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sanchez, said, “The challenge
before us is not just to get a document signed. The challenge before
us is to do justice to victims of violence. The challenge before us
is to ensure that our goal becomes reality. These men and women and
children deserve nothing less than swift and effective action.”

(END)

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