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Little Agreement Reached at UN Conference on Small Arms
Representatives from 189 UN member states are nowhere near agreement on key elements of a plan of action to curb the illegal trade in small arms and light weapons as the UN conference on small arms is just some 24 hours away from the scheduled conclusion on Friday.
Optimism is fading as the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects enters critical stage with little agreement at hand.
A UN spokesman told a press conference here Thursday that the international gathering again went into a night session on Wednesday, as negotiations intensified on the revised Program of Action, the final document to be adopted at the end of the two- week conference.
"Considerable progress has been made, but there are still a number of paragraphs to be agreed on," the U.N. spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said. "The conference will tackle them today, with the conference set to end Friday."
The next 24 hours are critical but many diplomats acknowledge their hopes for the strongly-worded Program of Action have been crushed by hard-line positions, including those taken by the United States.
Others fear that the conference, which kicked off on July 9, may end in failure to get the unbinding plan passed at the first U. N. conference on small arms.
The tough U.S. stance was criticized by its Western allies, who mostly want the approval of the plan to strengthen global coordination and cooperation against the illegal trade in small arms, saying that everyone, including the United States, has to give little at the table.
When the conference opened about two weeks ago, the United States said it would walk before compromising on key points, including gun ownership, and the freedom to supply small arms to rebel groups in the world, such as in Angola, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.
U.S. delegates said they wanted whole paragraph deleted from the 11-page draft document and others modified.
So far, the United States, the top exporter of small arms and light weapons in the world, has not compromised on a single item or persuade others of its positions -- some rooted in America's constitutional right to bear arms -- according to Western diplomats close to the negotiations.
However, the United Nations has made it very clear before the convocation of the conference that the conference is not targeted at the legal production, transfer and ownership of small arms and light weapons in the world.
On July 10, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged widespread support for the goals of the conference. In an article carried by the U.S. newspaper "the International Herald Tribune," he recalled the success of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and said the fight against "equally deadly and even more pervasive" illegal small arms and light weapons should be the next focus of urgent worldwide attention.
Seeking to clarify the purpose of the forum, Annan stressed that it "is not meant to infringe on national sovereignty, limit the right of states to defend themselves, interfere with their responsibility to provide security, or subvert the right of peoples to self-determination, nor is it meant to take guns away from their legal owners."
The targets of the conference, he said, "are unscrupulous arms dealers, corrupt officials, drug trafficking syndicates, terrorists and others who bring death and mayhem into streets, schools and towns throughout the world."
Also on Thursday, a gun sculpture opened today at the south end of the General Assembly Public Lobby.
This exhibit, entitled "Transforming Arms into Ploughshares," displays a number of small gun sculptures from Mozambique, including chairs that have been made from parts of guns that were used in that country's civil war. The exhibit is organized by the Christian Council of Mozambique and sponsored by the Mission of Mozambique, the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) and others.
More than 500 million small arms and light weapons are in circulation around the world -- one for about every 12 people. They were the weapons of choice in 46 out of 49 major conflicts since 1990, causing four million deaths -- about 90 percent of them civilians and 80 percent women and children.
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