Final Negotiations for a United Nation Arms Trade Treaty

Delhi, 27 February 2013

Securing India: Final Negotiations for a United Nation Arms Trade Treaty
28 Feb 2013, 6.00pm to 8.00pm, Casuarina Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi

27 Feb 2013: The international arms trade is out of control. A thousand people die every day because of armed violence, and many more are seriously injured. Many of the victims are women and children. In India alone, 12 people die from armed violence every day. Yet the global trade that fuels the epidemic of armed violence is not subject to international regulation. The arms industry is unlike any other. It operates without regulation. There is more regulation in music and film industry than in arms. At present, it is impossible to monitor or interrupt this deadly flow of weapons. This is because there are no agreed global standards for governments when authorising exports or transfers.

Several years earlier on 6 December 2006, for the first time, work to find a solution on unregulated arms trade started with the international Arms Trade Treaty process that began as 153 countries voted in favor of the historic resolution on Arms Trade Treaty in the UN General Assembly. Work is going on now to make the Arms Trade Treaty happen by 2013.

The proposed element of Arms Trade Treaty is in keeping with India's historic role for non-violence, civil order and universal disarmament. The Indian government has repeatedly admitted the easy availability of illegal arms and that they are unable to stop or even arrest people engaged in such illegal sale or production and hence its time to take the lead for Arms Trade Treaty to happen.

India is among 133 nations that voted in favour of a draft UN General Assembly resolution which seeks resumption of failed negotiations on an international arms treaty aimed at regulating the USD 70 billion global trade in conventional weapons. The Final United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty would aim to finalise the “elaboration of the Arms Trade Treaty, in an open and transparent manner, utilising the modalities ~ under which the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty operated,” the resolution said.

The US was among the 133 nations that voted in favour of the resolution, which was opposed by none. Seventeen countries, including Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen abstained from voting.The new round of talks seeks to give impetus to global efforts to come up with a “legally binding instrument” on the highest possible common international standards to regulate the USD 70 billion global trade in conventional arms.

On 28 February 2013, Control Arms Foundation of India in collaboration with India Habitat Centre and Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network will be organising a panel discussion on the topic “Securing India: Final Negotiations for a United Nation Arms Trade Treaty” at Casuarina Hall, India Habitat Centre, 6.00pm to 8.00pm as a final call to make the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty happen.

The event will be chaired by Ambassador Arundhati Ghose, Former India's permanent representative/ambassador to the United Nations and will be presided by Lt. General (retd.) Dr BS Malik, President, Control Arms Foundation of India. Noted panelists of the event will include Ms Sripriya Ranganathan, Director, Disarmament & International Security Affairs and Technology Division, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India ; Mr MV Rappai, Visiting fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies; Mr. Riju Raj Jamwal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India; Professor Swaran Singh, President, Association of Asia Scholars and General Secretary, Indian Congress for Asian & Pacific Studies and Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Secretary General, Control Arms Foundation of India & Founder, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network. Kindly join the event.

For more information, please contact:
Control Arms Foundation of India
Email: [email protected]

Address for correspondence:
B 5/146, Safdarjung Enclave,
New Delhi-110029, India.
Phone: +9-11-46018541
Fax: +91-11-26166234.
Website / Blog: www.cafi-online.org & http://neiwip.blogspot.com/, www.womensurvivorsnetwork.org