UN overwhelmingly approves global arms trade treaty

Reuters: The 193-nation UN General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70 billion business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.

The official UN tally showed 154 votes in favour, three against and 23 abstentions, though diplomats and UN officials said the actual vote was 155-3-22 due to Angola being recorded as having abstained and not voting yes. Venezuela, which said it had planned to abstain, Zimbabwe and three other countries were not allowed to vote because they were in arrears on their UN dues.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the vote, saying the treaty “will make it more difficult for deadly weapons to be diverted into the illicit market and... will help to keep warlords, pirates, terrorists, criminals and their like from acquiring deadly arms.”

Iran, Syria and North Korea last week prevented a treaty-drafting conference at UN headquarters from reaching the required consensus to adopt the treaty. That left delegations that support it no choice but to turn to a General Assembly vote to adopt it.

The Iranian, Syrian and North Korean delegations cast the sole votes against the treaty on Tuesday.

Iran, which is under a UN arms embargo over its nuclear program, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, while Syria’s government is embroiled in a two-year civil war and relies on arms from Russia and Iran, envoys said.

North Korea is also under a UN arms embargo due to its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

The treaty will be open for signature on 3 June and will enter into force 90 days after the 50th signatory ratifies it. Mexican UN Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba told reporters it normally takes two to three years for a treaty to come into force, but said he hoped it would happen sooner in this case.

Major arms producers China and Russia joined Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and other countries in abstaining.

A number of countries, led by India, which also abstained, complained the treaty favoured exporting over importing states. Russia said Moscow would take a hard look at the treaty before deciding whether to sign it.

Several delegates told Reuters the treaty’s effectiveness would be limited if major arms exporters refuse to sign it.

The United States, the world’s No. 1 arms exporter, voted in favour of the treaty despite fierce opposition from the National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful US pro-gun lobbying group.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement the UN adopted “a strong, effective and implementable Arms Trade Treaty that can strengthen global security while protecting the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade.”

“Nothing in this treaty could ever infringe on the rights of American citizens under our domestic law or the Constitution, including the Second Amendment,” he added, referring to the US constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to bear arms.