Date:
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Jerusalem and DC have signed but not ratified pact, with US citing
possible constraints on arms sales to IDF
BY AFP December 23, 2014, 1:33 pm | The Times of Israel|
UNITED NATIONS — A treaty laying down international rules for the $85 billion dollar
global arms trade goes into force on Wednesday with campaigners vowing to make
sure it is strictly implemented.
The United States — by far the world’s largest arms producer and exporter — has signed the
treaty, but has yet to ratify it.
Israel joined the pact last week, but has not yet ratified it.
Lawmakers in the US balked at cottoning to the treaty, arguing that it could impair Washington’s
ability to sell arms to Israel, among other reasons.
Fifty senators, including all 45 Senate Republicans, listed a number of reasons for their opposition
to the treaty in a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry in October.
“The State Department has acknowledged that the treaty includes language that could hinder the
United States from fulfilling its strategic, legal and moral commitments to provide arms to key allies
such as the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the State of Israel,” they wrote.
Other key exporters such as France, Britain and Germany have ratified the charter and pledged to
adhere to its strict criteria aimed at cutting off weapons supplies to human rights violators
worldwide.
A total of 130 countries have signed the treaty and 60 have ratified it.
“For too long, arms and ammunition have been traded with few questions asked about whose lives
they will destroy,” said Anna Macdonald, director of the Control Arms coalition of nongovernmental
organizations.
“The new Arms Trade Treaty which enters into force this week will bring that to an end.”
“It is now finally against international law to put weapons into the hands of human rights abusers
and dictators,” she said.
Campaigners, however, say much work lies ahead to implement the treaty, with a first meeting of
the states parties to the treaty to be held around September next year.
Decisions will have to be made about the financing mechanisms for the pact and setting up a
secretariat to oversee its implementation.
Amnesty International noted that five of the top 10 arms exporters — France, Germany, Italy,
Spain and Britain – have ratified the ATT. China and Russia have yet to sign on.
The first major arms accord since the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the ATT
covers international transfers of everything from tanks to combat aircraft to missiles, as well as
small arms.
The treaty compels countries to set up national controls on arms exports. States must assess
whether a weapon could be used to circumvent an international embargo, be used for genocide
and war crimes or be used by terrorists and organized crime.
“If robustly implemented, this treaty has the potential to save many lives and offer much needed
protection to vulnerable civilians around the world,” said Macdonald.