When will we put down our weapons of war?

During the treaty negotiations, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged members of the UN Global Arms Committee to “work in good faith”.  Each year, 750,000 innocent people fall victim to armed conflict and violence as a result of illicit arms trading, boosting corruption and generally undermining development throughout the poorer parts of the world.

The UN Global Arms Treaty sought to establish common standards for global arms trade, to regulate a $60 billion dollar trade in conventional weapons: a six-year campaign organized by non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International and Oxfam.

The treaty deadline was July 31.  No agreement was reached, due to the fact that any draft treaty must be approved unanimously - effectively giving all countries the power of veto. If a treaty is vetoed, it moves to the 193-member UN General Assembly for adopted with a two-thirds majority. 

The United States has long opposed reporting ammunition exports in any treaty, in addition to the bipartisan group of 51 US senators threatening to oppose any agreement that infringed on the constitutional right to bear arms.  China does not want small arms included, and both Russia and China have also sought restrictions to references to humanitarian law.

Many leading arms markers had reservations about any international deal. The U.S. and Russia are among the world's largest exporters of weapons, as well as China, Germany, France. Other countries expressing concerns about the treaty package were Syria, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Algeria. 

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We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war. Jimmy Carter