Peace Organization Lobbies for Arms Trade Treaty
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net

Reducing the availability of guns and other arms to maniacal leaders and warring parties in order to decrease the severity of the atrocities that often result in civil conflicts is the aim of an arms trade treaty being pushed by Costa Rica 's Arias Foundation for Peace and Progress.

Supporters hope to get the treaty passed in the United Nations, explained the Arias Foundation's Chris Stevenson to a meeting of the Democrats Abroad Saturday.

“We aren't going to eliminate the illegal transfer of arms, but we are going to reduce the Rwandas,” she said, referring to the 1994 genocide of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in that country.

While machetes and farm implements were used by the killers in Rwanda, so were rifles, pistols and machine guns that came from weapons manufacturers, and some governments, from around the globe.

The idea of the treaty is that those who provide the guns used in such atrocities should be held responsible.

Essentially it seeks to prohibit the transfer of small arms to people or governments that will use them, or are likely to use them, to: violate human rights as defined under the U.N. Charter and other doctrines, such as torture, rape or unlawful killings; commit genocide or crimes against humanity; or divert them to people or governments that would use them to commit any of these acts. It would also outlaw transfer of arms that are indiscriminate (such as landmines) or cause unnecessary suffering.

Stevenson acknowledges that the question of “likely” makes some circumstances gray; a country's history would certainly come into play.

So far the treaty has the support of only 35 countries, Stevenson said, a far cry from a majority in the United Nations. The United Kingdom became the first G-8 country to support the treaty, followed by Germany and France. However, the United States, Russia and India are mounting a strong lobby against the treaty, she said.

The United States, Russia and France are among the top gun-producing countries in the world. Small arms are produced by more than 1,000 companies in at least 98 countries, according to the Arias Foundation. According to estimates, around the world, 1,300 people are shot and killed everyday and 550 million small arms are in circulation worldwide.

Next year will be a defining year for the treaty. The first step will be getting it placed on the United Nations agenda next year, for discussion at a later date.

The Arias Foundation and other treaty supporters are currently working on a national and regional level to muster support for the treaty, such as in the Organization of American States (OAS).

“Getting support from the OAS may be difficult because the United States is part of it,” Stevenson said.

With the U.S. fight against terrorism increasing arms trade, and the lobby of the National Rifle Association (NRA), few leaders are willing to even discuss an arms trade treaty, she said.

“We have to show that the treaty is compatible with the fight against terrorism and the NRA; we are not saying governments can't trade guns, but that they must do it responsibly,” she said.