Negotiators at the United Nations neared completion on Friday of a new treaty aimed at regulating the estimated $60 billion global arms trade business, which proponents called a major historic achievement that if fully enforced could squelch the cross-border flow of weapons and ammunition that has helped to fuel armed conflicts and mass killings around the world.
But ahead of a Friday night deadline to finalize the treaty, which would require approval by all 193 members of the United Nations, a number of nations were still balking at approval, including Syria, North Korea and Iran. In addition, the Obama administration indicated that it might need more time to study the treaty beyond Friday, and proponents of gun rights in the United States, including 51 senators, were urging the administration not to sign it.
?As defenders of the right of Americans to keep and bear arms, we write to express our grave concern about the dangers posed by the United Nations? arms trade treaty,? the senators said in a letter to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. ?Our country?s sovereignty and the constitutional protection of these individual freedoms must not be infringed.?
Supporters of efforts to negotiate the treaty, including the Arms Control Association, an advocacy group in Washington, said nothing in the treaty infringed on the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the group, exhorted the Obama administration to bypass the gun lobby?s criticism.
?President Obama must lead and not further delay this important and long-running process to help reduce human suffering as a result of irresponsible international arms transfers and arms brokering,? he said in a statement on Friday, urging the president to sign it. ?The conclusion of a sound arms trade treaty would represent an important step forward for U.S. security and international security that President Obama and the U.S. Congress should embrace.?
In a telephone news conference ahead of the negotiation deadline, Mr. Kimball and other proponents of the treaty said it was unclear whether consensus approval was achievable. Galen Carey, vice president of government relations at the National Association of Evangelicals, criticized members of the gun lobby for disparaging the treaty, saying, ?Those spreading misinformation about alleged links between this treaty and the Second Amendment should stop doing so.?
Negotiations over the treaty, which began four weeks ago after lengthy preparations, coincided with a renewed and emotional debate in the United States over the ease of possessing weapons and ammunition following the mass killings of theater patrons in suburban Denver last week by a lone gunman.
The treaty would for the first time establish common international standards for authorizing international arms transfers, including basic regulations and approval protocols that would improve transparency and accountability. A prime purpose of the treaty, according to the draft, is to ?prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in conventional arms and their diversion to illegal and unauthorized end use.?
The treaty would prohibit signatories from transferring conventional weapons that violate arms embargoes or enable those who commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The General Assembly first voted in December 2006 to negotiate a treaty regulating the arms trade, but the Bush administration objected. In October 2009, the Obama administration reversed that position and supported a General Assembly measure to conduct preparatory meetings that led to the conference to draft a treaty that began on July 2.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=e841340b5bebf73e88c7f4d382c7837e
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