More than 60 countries sign arms trade treaty
By Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS: After years-long cumbersome talks, the international community is finally endorsed a new treaty to restrain massive flow of arms by illicit means.
On Monday, more than 60 countries, big and small, including Pakistan, signed the arms trade to regulate the $ 85 billion annual trade in arms and ammunition.
The new treaty is the outcome of a UN General Assembly resolution adopted some two months ago with an overwhelming majority vote in support of the need for legal scrutiny of global transfer of weapons.
After a decade-long campaigning by right activists, some of the world's top exporters, the United States, Britain and France, agreed to sign the treaty, but failed to convince some other big powers to do the same.
The two other major arms exporters, Russia and China have neither rejected, not embraced the treaty. During the vote they abstained by arguing that the text was full of loopholes.
There were 20 other members who chose to abstain during the vote and expressed more or less similar opinion. Among those who flatly rejected the treaty are Iran, Korea and Syria. Though not pleased with the fact that the treaty lacks consensus, the civil society groups say they are hopeful that it eventually lead to produce positive results.
The Control Arms Coalition, an umbrella group consisting of more than 100 civil society groups, holds that, despite some flaws, the teary would help protect millions living in daily fear of armed violence and at risk of rape, assault, displacement and death.
"[This] gives hope to the millions affected by armed violence every day. Gunrunners and dictators have been sent a clear message that their time of easy access to weapons is up," said Anna Macdonald, head of Arms Control, Oxfam.
"For generations the arms trade has been shrouded in secrecy but from now on it will be open to scrutiny," she added in a statement.
The treaty is designed to make governments take responsibility for every arms transfer that enters or leaves their territory, and requires that they put human rights and humanitarian law, not profit, at the heart of every decision.
According to the Coalition, more than 500,000 people are killed by armed violence every year. Eight of the most violence-affected countries in the world were to sign the treaty, which would make it more difficult for illicit arms to cross their borders, the Coalition said.
Conflict-wracked countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan were expected to take the lead in endorsing the treaty to protect millions of people displaced from their homes due to armed violence.
When the campaign against illicit arm flow was first kicked off by the Coalition over a decade ago, only three countries – Mali, Costa Rica and Cambodia – supported the treaty. Today, more than 150 nations are in favour, including Pakistan.
Before the voting in April, Syria explained that it was "not against the treaty" and that it just wanted to see "a good treaty that will not [be] regretted later".
Syria said it wanted a reference in the text to the right to self-determination of people living under foreign occupation, and specifically cited Israel in this regard.
Before the vote, Russia, India, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and several other countries described the treaty text as "unbalanced", and noted that it was full of shortcomings. Though Pakistan voted in favour of the resolution, it regretted what it described as "the lack of definitions" and expressed the view that there was "a relative lack of accountability for exporters".
The United States, the world's largest arms exporter, is in favour of the treaty but was not among the first signatories.
"The United States welcomes the opening of the Arms Trade Treaty for signature, and we look forward to signing it as soon as the process of conforming the official translations is completed satisfactorily," said US Secretary of State John Kerry in a statement.
04 Jun, 2013
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Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNH8KLf_0XC41f2inCKrG7vpePaL0g&url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%255C06%255C04%255Cstory_4-6-2013_pg4_11
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