U.N. Treaty Approved - Aims to Limit Arms Exports to Rights Abusers, Will it be used to stop arms sales to Israel?

U.N. Treaty Approved - Aims to Limit Arms Exports to Rights Abusers, Will it be used to stop arms sales to Israel ?(NYT).The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve the first-ever treaty to regulate the enormous global trade in conventional weapons, for the first time linking sales to the human-rights records of the buyers. The vote on the Arms Trade Treaty came after an effort to achieve a consensus on the treaty among all 193 member states of the United Nations failed last week, with Iran, North Korea and Syria blocking it. Those three countries, often ostracized as pariahs, contended the treaty was full of deficiencies and had been structured to be unfair to them.

The treaty requires states exporting conventional weapons to develop criteria that would link exports to avoiding human-rights abuses, terrorism and organized crime. It would also ban shipments if they were deemed harmful to women and children. Countries that join the treaty would have to report publicly on sales every year.

Although the treaty has no compulsory enforcement mechanism, it exposes the arms-trade process to new levels of transparency that proponents of the treaty say could help severely limit illicit weapons deals going forward.

The vote was heavily lopsided in favor, with 154 supporting it — including the United States, the leading arms exporter — and the same three nations that had blocked consensus approval last week opposing.

But 23 others abstained, notably Russia and China, which are also major arms sellers globally, along with major importers like India, Pakistan and Indonesia. Those absentions called into question how effective the treaty might prove to be. The treaty covers trade in tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber weapons, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and launchers, small arms and light weapons. Ammunition exports are subject to the same criteria as the other war materiel  Imports are not covered.

Asked about the potential impact of the treaty, Thomas M. Countryman, the assistant secretary of state who led the American delegation to the talks, said he did not expect an instant impact on the level of trade nor the level of violence around the world.

But over a longer period of time, he said before the vote, “I think it will contribute to a reduction in violence.” More states will impose controls on their own legal exports and the treaty demands more effective action against black-market arms brokers and the diversion of weapons, he said.

Despite repeated assurances by Obama administration officials that the treaty would not affect American domestic use of firearms or the Second Amendment, the National Rifle Association has criticized the treaty and vowed to fight ratification in the Senate.Read the full story here.


Hmmm.....Lets Abolish US Arms trade to Israel? Kerry voices conditional US support for UN arms trade treaty.The perfect 'Tool' to stop arms sales to Israel?

Related: If the U.S. approves the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty it could be used to stop arms sales to Israel.