General Assembly Passes Landmark U.N. Treaty on Arms Trade

[Purveyor]

Source: New York Times

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve the first-ever treaty to regulate the enormous global trade in conventional weapons, for the first time linking sales to the human-rights records of the buyers.

The vote on the Arms Trade Treaty came after an effort to achieve a consensus on the treaty among all 193 member states of the United Nations failed last week, with Iran, North Korea and Syria blocking it. Those three countries, often ostracized as pariahs, contended the treaty was full of deficiencies and had been structured to be unfair to them.

The treaty would require states exporting conventional weapons to develop criteria that would link exports to avoiding human-rights abuses, terrorism and organized crime. It would also ban shipments if they were deemed harmful to women and children. Countries that join the treaty would have to report publicly on sales every year, exposing the process to levels of transparency that rights groups hope will strictly limit illicit weapons deals.

The vote was heavily lopsided in favor, with 154 supporting it and three opposing.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/world/arms-trade-treaty-approved-at-un.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[Javaman]

1. Let the right wing conspiracy theories fly! nt

[Turborama]

3. Judging by who blocked it

From what we've seen lately on here, there'll be some extreme-fringe left-wing conspiracy theories, too.

[Turborama]

2. And the three who opposed were...

... Iran, North Korea and Syria.

Quelle surprise!

[pampango]

4. UK Guardian: UN general assembly passes first global arms treaty

The United Nations has adopted its first ever treaty aimed at controlling the trade in conventional weapons, voting it through by a large majority despite earlier being blocked by three countries.

Member states represented in the UN general assembly voted by 154 to 3, with 23 abstentions, to control a trade worth an estimated £46bn a year. The landmark deal went to a vote after Syria, Iran and North Korea – all at odds with the US – blocked its adoption by consensus.

Russia, the world's second-biggest exporter, was among those that abstained from the vote at the UN headquarters in New York. China also abstained. Loud cheering erupted in the chamber when the votes were counted.

Amnesty International hailed the deal, noting that it had been opposed in the US by the powerful National Rifle Association: "The voices of reason triumphed over sceptics, treaty opponents and dealers in death to establish a revolutionary treaty that constitutes a major step toward keeping assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons out of the hands of despots and warlords who use them to kill and maim civilians, recruit child soldiers and commit other serious abuses," its US office said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/02/un-general-assembly-passes-arms-treaty