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US ‘Proud’ to Vote in Favor of Adopting The Arms Trade Treaty

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With the recent approval of UN Global Arms Trade Treaty by UN General Assmbly this week, the United States of America today said it is proud to have been able to co-sponsor and vote in favor of adopting the Arms Trade Treaty.

In her statment at the UN General Assembly Meeting on the Arms Trade Treaty in New York, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Rosemary A. DiCarlo says the treaty is strong, balanced, effective, and implementable, and US believes it can command wide support.

“We join others in congratulating Ambassador Peter Woolcott for his tireless efforts in guiding the negotiation.” – Ms. DiCarlo

Ms. Dicarlo says the treaty is the product of a long, intensive negotiation, and I know that no nation, including my own, got everything it may have sought in the final text.

The result is an instrument that succeeds in raising the bar on common standards for regulating international trade in conventional arms while helping to ensure that legitimate trade in such arms will not be unduly hindered, Mr. DiCarlo added.

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Wide view of the conference hall as the UN Conference on an Arms Trade Treaty gets underway. The conference aims to negotiate a robust and legally binding treaty regulating the international conventional arms trade, and is scheduled to continue at UN Headquarters through 27 July.

UN Photo

The consensus rule remains important for the United States

Ms. Dicarlo says the negotiations remained true to the original mandate for them from UN General Assembly Resolution 64/48, which called for negotiating a treaty with the highest possible common international standards for the transfer of conventional arms and for the negotiations to be conducted in an open and transparent manner, on the basis of consensus.

“The consensus rule remains important for the United States; the United Nations is most effective when it is able to take decisions by consensus.” – Ms. DiCarlo

In addition, Ms. DiCarlo says as the United States has urged from the outset, this Treaty sets a floor not a ceiling for responsible national policies and practices for the regulation of international trade in conventional arms.

The US looks forward to all countries having effective national control systems and procedures to manage international conventional arms transfers, as the United States does already.

Ms. DiCarlo points that the negotiations have resulted in a treaty that provides a clear standard, in Article 6, for when a transfer of conventional arms is absolutely prohibited.

She explains that this article both reflects existing international law and, in paragraph three, would extend it by establishing a specific prohibition on the transfer of conventional arms when a state party knows that the transfer will be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, or the enumerated war and other crimes.

SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon (right) meets with Peter Woolcott, President-designate of the Final UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, to take place 18-28 March 2013 in New York. UN Photo

She notes that Article 7 requires a state party to conduct a national assessment of the risk that a proposed export could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law, as well as acts of terrorism or transnational organized crime.

Taken together, Ms. DiCarlo says these articles provide a robust and complementary framework that will promote responsible transfer of decisions by states parties.

UN Approves ‘Historic’ Global Arms Trade Treaty

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade.

The new treaty reportedly seeks to regulate the $70 billion business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of rebels and human rights abusers.

The official U.N. tally showed 154 votes in favour, three against 23 abstentions.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has welcomed the vote and said the treaty “will help to keep warlords, pirates, terrorists, criminals and their like from acquiring deadly arms.”

The treaty will be open for signature on June 3 and will enter into force 90 days after the 50th signatory ratifies it.

Reports say its takes two to three years for a treaty to come into force.

US Welcomes the approval of UN Global Arms Treaty

In his remarks at the historic outcome of the Arms Trade Treaty Conference, US Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States is pleased that the United Nations General Assembly has approved 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.

He says the Treaty adopted today will establish a common international standard for the national regulation of the international trade in conventional arms and require all states to develop and implement the kind of systems that the United States already has in place.

Secretary Kerry adds the treaty will help reduce the risk that international transfers of conventional arms will be used to carry out the world’s worst crimes, including terrorism, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

At the same time, Secretary Kerry points out the treaty preserves the principle that the international conventional arms trade is, and will continue to be, a legitimate commercial activity that allows nations to acquire the arms they need for their own security.

UN Global Arms Treaty reaffirms sovereign right of any State to regulate arms within its territory

According to Secretary Keyy, by its own terms, this treaty applies only to international trade, and reaffirms the sovereign right of any State to regulate arms within its territory.

He says as the United States has required from the outset of these negotiations, nothing in this treaty could ever infringe on the rights of American citizens under its domestic law or the Constitution, including the Second Amendment.

US Only Supports Arms Trade Treaty Consistent With US Laws

With the final round of negotiations from March 18 to 28 to reach consensus on an Arms Trade Treaty, the United States of America has voiced conditional US support for the UN arms trade treaty.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the US could only be party to an Arms Trade Treaty that addresses international transfers of conventional arms solely and does not impose any new requirements on the U.S. domestic trade in firearms or on U.S. exporters.

The United States is the world’s No. 1 arms manufacturer. However, Secretary Kerry highlighted that US would not accept any treaty that imposed new limits on US citizens’ right to bear arms.

Iran, North Korea, and Syria Reject Adoption of UN Arms Trade Treaty

Iran, Syria and North Korea have blocked the adoption UN’s Arms Trade Treaty, a proposal to regulate the global weapons trade.

Reports say the three countries rejected the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty, saying that the document was flawed and the proposal failed to prevent a surge of weapons sales to rebel groups.

Iran, North Korea and Syria are all currently under some form of UN arms sanctions.

Media reports say the UN arms trade treaty supposedly would regulate the multibillion-dollar international arms trade which required agreement by all 193 U.N. member states.

Mina Fabulous follows the news, especially what is going on in the US State Department. Mina turns State Department waffle into plain English. Mina Fabulous is the pen name of Carmen Avalino, the NewsBlaze production editor. When she isn’t preparing stories for NewsBlaze writers, she writes stories, but to separate her editing and writing identities, she uses the name given by her family and friends.

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