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].
Indeed, another predictably missed opportunity from the US, and another failure to enforce a much needed 'law and order" that our Beloved Leader seem to think is important. Protest all it might, the US has no moral ground to stand on here.
ReplyDeleteIndeed the US has created a bit of a monster in their arms industry.
ReplyDeleteStill I dont see any of the important countries in that list china india USA sth korea israel etc. Sadly, the treaty would be much better if all the countries who DIDNT sign it did so and all the others exited.
I would like such treaties to be a bit more "ballsy"
doing things like having big lists of banned items and situati0ons when they cannot be sold and punishments for breaches...