Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: It is now three weeks until the World Summit,
and the US has just proposed big cuts to the
draft Outcome Document for the summit -
including cutting the reference to regulating
small arms.
[Friday 26 August 2005] - Activists around the world today condemned US
attempts to remove all references to controlling the small arms trade from
a United Nations document due to be signed by more than 170 world
leaders next month.
With less than three weeks before heads of state arrive in New York for
the unprecedented summit on poverty and UN reform, the US has taken an
axe to the proposed outcome document for the summit, requesting the
deletion of the only two commitments on small arms:
- To “adopt and implement an international instrument to regulate the
marking and tracing, illict brokering, trade and transfer of small arms and
light weapons.”
- To implement the 2001 UN Programme of Action. This agreement was an
early step by the international community towards controlling the trade in
small arms.
More than 140 States have expressed support during the last few months
of negotiations for the inclusion of one or both of these commitments on
small arms in the measures to be agreed by the summit.
“The World Summit will set the agenda on security and development for
the years to come. The uncontrolled proliferation of guns is the missing link
for both of these issues. How can people work their way out of poverty
when they can’t step outside for fear of bullets? The majority of
governments who are beginning to recognise this must not allow the US to
let arms control slip off the agenda,” said Rebecca Peters, Director of
IANSA.
Small arms kill at least 300,000 people a year and injure over a million
more. They prevent access to healthcare, education and humanitarian
assistance and fuel the conflicts that destroy economies and employment
opportunities. IANSA members are calling for a new global legally-binding
treaty to control the arms trade.
The World Summit will take place at UN headquarters in New York on 14-16
September. Negotiations on the outcome document are now in their final
stages.
Visit the UN website and read the
href='http://www.un.org/ga/59/hlpm_rev.2.pdf'>Draft Outcome
Document