Under The Radar

Weapons of Mass Destruction may be the buzzword and certainly needs direct attention but from what I've seen most of the death in wars comes in the form of small arms. The U.S. was the ONLY country to vote against a U.N. resolution calling for a treaty to stop the weapons trade. The current volume of the global arms trade is estimated to be around 1.1 trillion dollars. Do you think that has anything to do with it? UN Passes Arms Trade Treaty Over US Opposition by Haider Rizvi UNITED NATIONS - United Nations member states voted Thursday to create an international treaty to curb the illicit trade in guns and other light weapons, despite strong opposition from the United States and other big powers. On Thursday, a vast majority of delegates to the U.N. General Assembly's first committee endorsed the resolution calling for the establishment of a treaty to stop weapons transfers that fuel conflict, poverty and serious human rights violations. As many as 139 countries voted in favor of the resolution while 24 abstained. The United States, the world's largest supplier of small arms, was the only country that opposed the resolution. Other major arms-manufacturing nations that oppose the treaty but did not participate in the voting include Russia, China, India and Pakistan. The vote came after three years of complex diplomatic negotiations and a worldwide campaign by civil society groups that involved more than one million people in 170 countries. Civil society groups said they were extremely happy with the outcome of the vote. "It's a great victory," Helen Hughes of the London-based Amnesty International told IPS. "We had governments in that room who finally listened to human rights campaigners." Jeremy Hobbs, director of Oxfam International, described the treaty as an international commitment to "end the scandal of the unregulated arms trade". Both Amnesty International and Oxfam had been at the forefront of lobbying efforts in support of the treaty. This week they were joined by 15 Nobel Peace Prize-winners in urging nations to vote for the resolution. "No weapons should ever be transferred if they will be used for serious violations of human rights," they said in a letter to the delegates who are currently attending the General Assembly session. Supporters of the resolution said they hoped that it would help close loopholes in laws that allow the flow of small arms to conflict zones across the world, and thus give rise to violations of human rights and undermine development. In their letter, the Nobel Peace laureates said all international weapons transfers should be authorized by a recognised state and carried out in accordance with international law. "No state should authorize international arms transfers that violate the specific obligations under international law," the letter said. It further recommended that governments submit national reports on arms transfers to an international registry. The current volume of the global arms trade is estimated to be around 1.1 trillion dollars, an amount that is likely to increase further by the end of this year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Read More At Common Dreams