The First Global Arms Trade Treaty Approved by the United Nations

In the wake of regional armed conflicts due to political, ideological and religious disputes, the United Nations, on Tuesday approved the first global arms trade treaty. Out of 193 member nations, there were 154 votes that favored the treaty, 23 abstentions and 3 against. Four countries including Zimbabwe had arrears in their U.N. dues payment and were not permitted to vote.

The U.N. says this is a move to regulate the sale of conventional arms, an industry which is worth about $70 billion, and keep them from being used by abusers of human rights. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the approval of the Treaty, saying that this would make it harder to divert deadly weapons to the black market.

General Assembly

North Korea, Iran and Syria tried to stop the drafting of the treaty last week, which prompted the member nations that were in favor of it to call for a General Assembly to get a consensus. It is obvious why these three nations are not in favor of the Treaty. North Korea, because of its missile and nuclear weapons programs is under an arms embargo from the U.N. Iran is also on the same boat, while Syria has been enduring a civil war that has been ongoing for two years now. They rely on Iran and Russia for their arms supply. Russia and China, which are major arms suppliers abstained from voting, sodo other countries like Angola, Nicaragua, India, Bolivia and Cuba.

Enforcement of the Treaty

The Global Arms Trade Treaty will be available for the signature of members on June 3, 2013. After the 50th signatory has signed it, it will take 90 days for it to enter into force, although according to Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.N., it normally takes two to three years before a treaty is fully enforced. He is hopeful that for this particular treaty, the enforcement will be sooner.

Dissensions

While the majority response to the Global Arms Trade Treaty is overwhelming, it is a topic that is sure to generate dissensions.

Russia, a major arms producer, is said to be taking a deeper look into the Treaty before it makes its decision whether to sign it or not. India believes that the Treaty is more favorable to the exporting nations. Several delegates fear that if the Treaty did not gain the signature of major arms producers, the scope of the Treaty will be very limited.

Syria says that the Treaty does not ban the sale of arms to groups out of state, or what they term “terrorists” that they believe are active in their country.

The Treaty could be subjected to further scrutiny because as it stands, it does not prohibit the transfer of weapons to armed groups, although there is a clause that states that every transfer of arms will undergo stringent human rights and risk assessments.