Arms Trade Treaty: UNDP SEESAC Applauds the Establishment of a Much Needed Regulatory Framework

On April 2, after years of unsuccessful attempts and a long-ongoing debate about its possible implications, the Worlds 1st Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) has been adopted.  This historic moment was marked by a landslide victory won by the supporters of the ATT when 153, out of 180 countries holding a seat at the UN General Assembly, voted in favor of the Treaty.

The aim of the Treaty is to regulate cross-border sales of conventional weapons by instituting high common standards for international trade of these goods and that way limit the violations of human rights and inflammation of potential and ongoing conflicts. For instance, Article 6(3) of the Treaty stipulates that State Parties “shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) or of items covered under Article 3 or Article 4, if it has knowledge at the time of authorization that the arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes."

In his statement U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon applauded the decision of the UN members, saying that the treaty "will make it more difficult for deadly weapons to be diverted into the illicit market and ... will help to keep warlords, pirates, terrorists, criminals and their like from acquiring deadly arms."

The Treaty represents a much needed, overarching control structure, that will regulate this highly dangerous and lucrative $70 billion business, and close the existing loopholes that have allowed for the continued supply of weapons into the wrongful hands. Thus far, the arms trade was regulated by the UN Programme of Action, or it rested on regional controls.

The following categories of weapons are covered by the treaty: battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, and small arms and light weapons.

However, the work on establishing a regulatory framework for international arms trade is not yet done. The Treaty will enter into force only 90 days after it is ratified by the 50 states. The Treaty will be open for signatures on 3 June 2013.

UNDP’S ROLE IN HALTING THE ILLICIT ARMS TRANSFERS
UNDP has been working on the issue of strengthening arms control systems globally. In South East Europe, UNDP SEESAC has taken the lead by supporting the efforts of six national governments to strengthen their arms control mechanisms. Capacity building, transparency and regional cooperation have been the pillars of this work.

SEESAC has assisted countries in the Western Balkan region to achieve the technical and expert capacity necessary to publish national arms transfers reports and contribute to the Regional Arms Exports Report on an annual basis. SEESAC supports the publication and distribution of national and regional reports. As of today, 34 National and 4 Regional Reports on Arms Exports have been published by the countries of the Western Balkans.

Since 2009, UNDP SEESAC has facilitated the exchange of information about arms export policies, their day-to-day implementation and parliamentary oversight among the responsible authorities of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. More than eleven (11) regional meetings on arms exports control, including meetings of the Western Balkans Parliamentary Forum on SALW, have been organized leading to the creation of a regional information database and joint reporting on arms exports.

The evolution of the ATT documents can be found on the UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty website.