Anti-Gun U.N. Arms Treaty Ready for Vote

[Geee]

Front Page Magazine:

The United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, which hit a temporary snag last week, is intended to regulate international trade in seven listed categories of conventional weapons, which include small arms and light weapons – for example, handguns and rifles. The international trade in these arms, which would be subject to global regulation under the treaty, includes all manner of “transfers,” which are defined loosely as comprising “export, import, transit, trans-shipment and brokering.” The objective is to prevent arms transfers that would enable the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, serious breaches of the Geneva Conventions, “attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians,” and other war crimes, as well as the export of arms where there is an “overriding risk” that they could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of “international humanitarian law” or “international human rights law.”

The treaty has a specific article dealing with the regulation of “exports” of ammunition/munitions. Non-governmental gun control advocacy organizations and some member states were not satisfied with the separate more limited regulation of ammunition, but the inclusion of ammunition in the treaty at all provides a foot in the door for more expansive regulation to come.

 

Under the rules of the specially assembled Final Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, which ended on March 28th, approval by consensus was required. This means that if any member state – even one – raised a formal objection, the treaty was deemed blocked. That is what ultimately happened, causing a hiccup on the road to final adoption of the treaty by one means or another.