UN Gun Conference Next Steps

[TIZReporter]

The Conference may have ended in failure, but the process continues....



Haider Rizvi, OneWorld US Tue Jul 11, 3:57 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS, July 11 (OneWorld) - Following the collapse of diplomatic talks at a recent world conference on small arms, many governments and international civil society groups who want to see a global crackdown on the multibillion-dollar illegal business in guns are now looking to the
United Nations General Assembly for help.
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Last Friday, negotiations at the two-week conference broke down at the last minute as the United States and a handful of other nations refused to endorse a document that proposed a wide range of international measures against the illegal trade in guns and other small weapons of various descriptions.

Though much less promising than what they had actually hoped for, proponents of the gun control efforts say the final draft of the Conference's outcome document was fully acceptable to a vast majority of governments, including the
European Union and those from Latin America and Africa.

The review conference was held to assess progress made by the world community on implementation of the UN Program of Action, which was adopted by all member states, some five years ago. At a meeting held in 2001, they made commitments to collect and destroy illegal weapons, curb their trafficking, regulate the activities of brokers, and impose trade controls.

Since its adoption, the program has stimulated a wide range of initiatives at the national, regional, and international level, with more than 50 countries having strengthened their laws to control the illegal business in guns, according to UN officials, who, nevertheless, believe that still a lot more needs to be done.

"The problem remains grave," said
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, at the beginning of the conference. "Small arms are easy to buy, easy to use, easy to transport, and easy to conceal."

"Their continued proliferation exacerbates conflict, sparks refugee flows, undermines the rule of law and spawns cultures of violence," he added in a statement.

Currently, about 25 percent of the $4 billion annual trade in small arms is either illicit or not recorded as required by law, according to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

During the conference, while many countries agreed that practical actions against the illegal business in small arms required further cooperation on the global level, the United States delegation stressed the need for regional efforts and reasoned that there was no need for further review meetings at the international level.

"The U.S. views on the follow-up (to the conference) are very different," Sri Lankan ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam and president of the conference told OneWorld. "Their position was unique. It focused more on regional action."

Though the U.S. opposition proved fatally damaging for the conference, moves to agree on global controls on the small arms trade were also blocked by Cuba,
Iran,
Israel, India, and Pakistan, according to those who closely watched the negotiation process.

Their negative role has caused a lot of anger and resentment among those who represented civil society groups at the conference.

"The world has been held hostage by a tiny minority of countries," says Anna Macdonald of Oxfam International, an human rights and development group that is at the forefront of the global civil society campaign against the proliferation of illegal small weapons.

Last year, small arms alone were responsible for the deaths of over half a million people--10,000 per week--according to UN officials.

Oxfam researchers estimate that during the conference held in New York from June 26 to July 7, at least 12,000 might have been killed by small arms. Macdonald thinks that by failing to reach a consensus governments have "betrayed" thousands of people who are vulnerable to gun-related violence.

Rebecca Peters of the London-based International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), a coalition of various groups campaigning against the spread of illegal small arms, agrees.

"It is unacceptable," she says, "for two weeks of talking to produce no outcome, particularly when 1,000 people are still dying at gun point every day."

Though disappointed with the outcome of the conference, Peters and her like-minded colleagues working with other advocacy groups think that no international efforts could succeed unless governments agree to impose an international ban on the illegal sale and transfer of small weapons.

"The world desperately needs a tough and well-enforced arms trade treaty to stop the present flow of weaponry to serious abusers of human rights," said Amnesty International's research manager for the arms trade.

Like other arms control campaigners, Amnesty International hopes that the 191-member UN General Assembly will take the gun trade issue seriously during its coming session due to start in September.

Disappointed with the outcome of the conference, many diplomats said last week they intended to support a resolution in the First Committee of the General Assembly calling for negotiations on a legally binding global arms control treaty.

The move is likely to succeed because, unlike international conferences, the General Assembly decides controversial issues on the basis of a majority vote, which the opponents of the proposed treaty certainly do not enjoy.

The proposed outcome document has already been sent to the First Committee for its consideration.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20060711/wl_oneworld/45361362771152647830


TIZ

 

[TIZReporter]

Here is the leading anti-gun group, IANSA's press release...

UN Arms Talks Meltdown: Conference Allows Global Gun Crisis to Continue

Despite the efforts of the majority of governments to secure real change, the long awaited UN Small Arms conference has ended in failure. Hijacked by a small number of states, notably the US, the conference failed to agree on any measures at all to address the global gun crisis.

Delegations from many countries in Africa and Latin America, the regions worst affected by gun proliferation, complained that their interests were overlooked.

Rebecca Peters, Director of IANSA, said: ‘It is to their lasting shame that governments let this happen: they allowed a small number of states to hold them all hostage and to derail any plans which might have brought improvement in this global crisis.’

The UN small arms review conference, only the second of its kind to be called by the UN, should have provided a clear framework for governments to protect people from gun violence. But it ended in acrimony and frustration as agreement on almost all the major issues was blocked by a handful of states, and no outcome document could be agreed.

‘My country has suffered appallingly from the effects of the uncontrolled arms trade, and continues to suffer because the guns remain among the civilian population even now that our war has ended. We don’t manufacture these guns, yet they end up in our country, erode our security and have terrible consequences for our development,’ said Florella Hazeley of the Sierra Leone Action Network on Small Arms, a member of IANSA.

Hazeley continued: ‘I attended this meeting in the hope that the governments of the world would work together to tackle these problems, and to address the needs of the survivors of gun violence. They have failed on all counts. How can I go home and explain this?’

Before talks collapsed completely late today, obstruction had occurred in the following areas:

• Progress on global standards for international arms transfers – which would prevent exports to destinations where they might be used for human rights violations – was obstructed primarily by Cuba, India, Iran, Israel and Pakistan. 115 governments had said they supported stronger provisions on transfer
controls, and one million people from 160 countries joined the Million Faces petition calling for global arms export standards that was presented to Kofi Annan as the conference opened last week.

• Discussion on how strengthening national laws can prevent gun deaths was blocked by the USA. 60% of the world’s guns are in the hands of civilians, and many countries recognise national gun laws as vital to tackling gun violence.

• The US refused to allow the conference to acknowledge the impact of small arms proliferation on development.

• Despite professing concern about the human cost of small arms violence, governments failed to agree to provide support for the survivors of gun violence.

• The US was instrumental in preventing any follow-on global meetings to discuss the small arms trade.

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Peters said: ‘The failure of this meeting will not detract from the enormous amount of work being done at local, national and regional levels around the world to protect people from gun violence. But because
gun proliferation is a global problem it does require a global solution, and we will continue to seek ways to make this happen.’

Contact: Anthea Lawson on +1 347 220 2916 (until Saturday evening) or +44 (0)7900 242 869 (from Sunday morning)
Notes

 

[1911Tuner]

re:

Quote:

>Last year, small arms alone were responsible for the deaths of over half a million people--10,000 per week--according to UN officials.<
**************

Yeah, we gotta do somethin' about those sociopathic guns. Wonder if group counseling would help...

 

[TIZReporter]

One wonders if weight lifting might help solve all these problems with small arms?



The problem which groups like IANSA offer is that they refuse to accept the facts, and work off of their own rules.

At the UN conference, Canada which has a long history of pushing to control guns didn't have Wendy Cukier as a part of their delegation, she showed up as a part of the Mexican delegation.

However, Peter MacKay, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister seems willing to continue the path the Liberal government set for Canada.

In May, Mackay was writing Canadians:

Thank you for your email of May 15, 2006, concerning small arms and
light weapons (SALW).

Combatting the illicit trade in SALW in all its aspects is an important
component of Canada's foreign policy agenda.

Canada has been at the forefront of efforts to address the proliferation
and misuse of SALW, actively supporting full implementation of the
United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the
Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA),
adopted by 130 countries in 2001. Under the PoA, countries commit to
taking a variety of measures to address the excessive accumulation and
uncontrolled spread of SALW used in conflict zones.

Effective transfer controls are key to ensuring that weapons from legal
market do not fall into the illicit trade. Controlling transfers helps
prevent the illicit accumulation of SALW which can destabilize
communities, countries and regions. Canada closely controls the export
of military goods and technology to countries that pose a threat to
Canada and its allies, countries that are involved in or under imminent
threat of hostilities, and countries that are under United Nations
Security Council sanctions or whose governments have a persistent record
of serious human rights violations. Canada, like many other countries,
adheres to a number of international arms control regimes, such as the
Wassenaar Arrangement, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe Document on Small Arms and Light Weapons, and the Organization of
American States Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit
Manufacturing and Trafficking of Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and
Other Related Materials. We continue to play an active role in
controlling the transfers of SALW within the international community and
we will be engaged in this issue at the United Nations Review Conference
on Small Arms to take place in New York, from June 27 to July 7, 2006.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.

Sincerely,




Peter G. MacKay
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Americans wishing to communicate with Mr. MacKay and express how they will choose their vacation destinations may do so at:

Hon. Peter Mackay MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Telephone: (613) 992-6022
Fax: (613) 992-2337

EMail: [email protected]

Web Site:* http://www.petermackay.ca/


TIZ

 

[geekWithA.45]

Hey Tiz, can you post these in L&P? It's probably a better match for the subject area.

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Last year, small arms alone were responsible for the deaths of over half a million people--10,000 per week--according to UN officials.

And how many of those people who died were killed by a government or group that had a monopoly on small arms? It amazes me that these people think the answer to defenseless people being killed by thugs is to make more people defenseless.

 

[Otherguy Overby]

What these moonbats don't realize is that destabilization of disadvantaged governments or some subset thereof is HUGE business.

The world bank and other crooks gets to fund things and receives healthy interest payments. HUGE bribes get spread around. When the "governments" can't keep up the payments, more money is lent and HUGE bribes again get spread around. This is continued until it can't be pulled off anymore. Then, the loans are "forgiven" which means the industrialized nations pay everything off...

It's for the starving children..

After the loans are "forgiven" the whole process begins again and HUGE bribes are again spread around. Guess what happens next?

The UN is beyond Machiavelian corruptness. The UN administers to the 21st century version of the 7th ring of hell. They need to be burned at the stake or publically dismembered on TV. These people deserve nothing but slow terrible death.

This is what Hill and Billary aspire too...

 

[Art Eatman]

If the numbers alleged by Rebecca Peters and others are anywhere near correct, Iraq's death toll is chump change...

Further, the U.S. is a very peaceful place, what with some 13,000 deaths per year or around 250 a week via the use of these horrible firearms.

Art

 

[K-Romulus]

IANSA stilll at it, we see

From the IANSA UN conference newsletter of July 5, in an article complaining that the conference was being hollowed out:

http://www.iansa.org/un/review2006/documents/RevConNewsWednesday5july.pdf

Strengthening national firearms
legislation – nothing to do with
implementing the PoA?

The deletion of II.2 and II.4
significantly weakens the document, by
removing almost all reference to national
laws. The pressure to remove these
paragraphs comes no doubt from the
narrow domestic concerns of two States
who are out of step with international
standards related to national small arms
control regimes. This should not obstruct
progress on a topic of vital interest to the
majority of UN Member States.

The same newsletter has an ad for an IANSA conference workshop:

IANSA key side event: National Firearms Legislation

Civilians hold 60% of the world's supply of small arms.
Preventing diversion of these weapons to illegal markets is
essential for effective and full implementation of the PoA. In
practice this requires the regulation of all aspects of the
manufacture, sale, possession, storage and use of small arms.
Numerous regional agreements and declarations are already
recognising this, a number of states are already sharing lessons
learned, and there is growing convergence on minimum
standards.

A Brazilian IANSA delegate also wrote an editorial in the same newsletter:

. . .As with elsewhere in the world, the majority of small arms are in
the hands of civilians and almost all of them were introduced into
the market legally. Therefore, the issue of regulating access to,
and possession of small arms cannot be ignored by this
Conference.

Strengthening national firearms legislation, including at a
bare minimum encouragement to license weapons, restrict certain
types and quantity of weapons civilians can own and carry, and
measures to prevent diversion to the illegal market, should
certainly be a part of the Outcome Document. Controls on, and
the marking of ammunition are also fundamental to the overall
goal of this meeting which is supposedly aimed at doing all that is
necessary to prevent the illicit trafficking and the misuse of small
arms all over the world.

CLAVE, the Latin American Coalition of NGOs to Prevent
Armed Violence, has strongly pushed for this issue to be a central
element on the global strategy to prevent armed violence. All
Latin American governments have clearly stated so at the recently
adopted “Antigua Declaration”. It is however not just a regional
preoccupation, as some 70% of States worldwide have reported
on their efforts to strengthen or enforce legislation since 2001 as
part of PoA implementation efforts. The call for sensible controls
on the sale and use of small arms is an urgent priority if we are to
build safer societies. When there is something in our reach to
directly save lives, can we afford to ignore it?

I eagerly await the UN General Assembly's next steps . .