By Jeff Moran
AmmoLand Gun News
New York, NY –(Ammoland.com)- Next month diplomats from the world over will converge at the United Nations in New York to formally negotiate a legally binding Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).
This is the culmination of over a decade of humanitarian advocacy and pre-negotiations inside and outside the United Nations.
It’s part of a larger global effort kick-started in 2001 with the passage of a non-legally binding resolution by the UN General Assembly. This resolution was called the “Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects” (PoA).(1) This led to the creation of many initiatives, the most visible and contentious of which has been the ATT.
The ATT process formally got underway with two subsequent UN resolutions lead by the United Kingdom and is still Chaired by Argentine Ambassador Roberto Moritán. In 2006, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 61/89 entitled “Towards an arms trade treaty: establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms.”(2) This resolution enabled the UK and like-minded countries to assemble experts to assess the feasibility of formally launching an ATT negotiation process. Then, in 2009, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 64/48, entitled “The Arms Trade Treaty,” which established a schedule for pre-negotiation meetings (known as Preparatory Committees, or PrepComs) resulting in a final Diplomatic Conference in July 2012.(3)
The goal of the ATT is to “to elaborate a legally binding instrument on the highest possible common international standards for the transfer of conventional arms.”(4) The scope is likely to include everything from helicopters to hand grenades, from tanks to target pistols and ammunition. It is hoped by humanitarians that a legally binding UN ATT championed by like-minded states could be shaped to complement the merely politically-binding 2001 UN PoA.
While all this treaty advocacy was going on, many of the same actors adopted a more discreet approach to binding international law for small arms and ammunition. Rather than just pursue their ambitious goals through a treaty out in the open, they also quietly started developing small arms control standards and customs. An example of this is the UN CASA (Coordinating Action on Small Arms) project, which is overseen by the UN’s Office of Disarmament Affairs.(5) UN CASA is euphemistically described as the “small arms coordination mechanism within the UN” to “frame the small arms issue in all its aspects, making use of development, crime, terrorism, human rights, gender, youth, health and humanitarian insights.”(6) In practice this organization is like a lawmaking committee or agency, but not nearly as accountable.
Related articles
- U.N. ATT treaty, if ratified, would surrender U.S. sovereignty by shredding the 2nd amendment (illinoisreview.typepad.com)
- U.N. finalizing Arms Trade Treaty, U.S. claims Second Amendment will be protected (sgtreport.com)
- Cornelius Vogt: Global arms trade treaty “better than nothing” (english.ruvr.ru)
- Soros Propaganda Supporting UN Global Gun Control Hits Mainstream (blacklistednews.com)
- Soros Propaganda Supporting UN Global Gun Control Hits Mainstream (theintelhub.com)
- Why this arms trade treaty is essential | William Hague, Laurent Fabius, Guido Westerwelle and Ewa Björling (guardian.co.uk)
- U.N. finalizing Arms Trade Treaty, U.S. claims Second Amendment will be protected (EndtheLie.com)
- U.N. finalizing Arms Trade Treaty That Nullifies Second Amendment In US (theaveragejoenewsblogg.com)
- U.N. Finalizing Arms Trade Treaty, U.S. Claims Second Amendment will be Protected (theintelhub.com)
- July UN Meeting to Discuss Global Arms Trade Treaty (voanews.com)
