Progress on arms control

Last year, I added my face to the Million Faces Petition calling for the UN to begin work on a new treaty to control the global trade in small arms. Last week, it did, with 139 countries voting for a resolution calling for "a comprehensive, legally binding instrument establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms". Somewhat predictably, the US voted against - and their excuse was typically disingenuous:

"The only way for a global arms trade treaty to work is to have every country agree on a standard," Richard Grenell, a spokesman for the US mission to the UN, told Associated Press. "For us, that standard would be so far below what we are already required to do under US law that we had to vote against it in order to maintain our higher standards."

Of course, nothing in such a treaty would prevent the US from having higher standards, just as nothing in existing human rights instruments prevents the US from having higher standards in that area. Instead, US opposition is more about protecting export markets - the US is the world's largest arms exporter, and it sees an arms trade treaty as a threat to a lucrative industry.

Finally, in case you haven't seen it yet: the Control Arms "Home Shopping Network" ad for the AK-47 [video].