by Ray Acheson, Reaching Critical Will of WILPF
On Friday,
most delegations made a concerted effort to begin substantive work on the arms
trade treaty (ATT) in discussions on goals and objectives and on scope. One
cross-cutting theme was the perceived tension between the rights and
responsibilities of producers and exporters on the one hand and of importers on
the other. Some delegates also highlighted the relationship between the
production of weapons and the transfer of weapons, arguing that both should be
addressed by a future ATT. However, a separate process is necessary for the
regulation of weapons production and the reduction of conventional arms.
As the ATT would
likely be limited to regulating the international trade in weapons, some
developing countries have been concerned that it will be used to prevent them from
acquiring weapons while the major producing countries will not face any
impediments to their own ability to acquire weapons. Thus during the general
debate of this conference, the Egyptian
delegation called for monitoring over and significant reductions in the
production, possession, and trade of conventional weapons by industrialized
states, arguing that over-production and increasing stockpiles of conventional
weapons within major arms exporters and producers “can easily contradict the
spirit and purpose” of an ATT.
To many, such
a suggestion appears to be an attempt to distract from the core objective of
the treaty, which is ostensibly to prevent the transfer of arms in situations
where they will likely be used to violate international law and human rights.
Yet as Venezuela’s
delegation pointed out on Friday, the largest weapon producers have been
known to use their conventional weapons to violate these same standards, but
“little is said about measures for enabling the control or restriction” of
their weapons.
While production
by definition arguably falls outside the scope of an arms trade treaty, production
is an integral part of the arms trade, as the Pakistani delegation noted on
Friday. How then should a treaty on the arms trade address this question of the
unregulated vertical proliferation of conventional arms?
The reduction
of arms and of their production has been on the UN’s agenda since its
inception. Article 26 of the UN Charter gives a mandate to the Security Council
and the (now defunct) Military Staff Committee to formulate a plan for
regulating arms to promote “the establishment and maintenance of international
peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human
and economic resources.” However, as the five permanent members of the UN
Security Council are among the largest arms exporters in the world, it should
come as no surprise that the Council has failed to fulfill this mandate.
