WUNRN
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES
FIRST-EVER ARMS TRADE TREATY
April
02, 2013 - The UN General Assembly has voted to
approve a first-ever treaty regulating the international arms trade. The UN
General Assembly adopted the landmark treaty on April 2 with 154 of the 193
members voting in favor of it and three against. The three no votes were cast
by Syria, North Korea, and Iran, the same three countries that jointly blocked
the treaty's adoption by consensus last week. Russia was among the 23 nations
that abstained.
The agreement has been more than a decade in the making, as activists and
governments have lobbied to regulate the trade and try to prevent weapons from
falling into the hands of terrorists, insurgents, and criminals.
The treaty does not apply to domestic use of weapons but does require countries
to establish national regulations to control arms transfers.
_____________________________________________________________
Reaching Critical Will is the disarmament programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the oldest women’s peace organization in the world. Reaching Critical Will works for nuclear and conventional disarmament, the reduction of global military spending, and the demilitarization of politics and economics in order to achieve human security and social, economic, and environmental justice.
____________________________________________________
