Russian MFA on the outcome of the UN Conference on International Arms Trade Treaty
On 2-27 July 2012 the United Nations Conference on International Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) took place in New York. According to the UN General Assembly resolution 64/48 the mandate of the Conference was to develop the highest possible common international standards for the transfer of conventional arms.
The hard work of delegations on the elaboration of the main provisions of the treaty lasted almost until the last day. An official draft was issued by the Chairman of the Conference only on 26 July. In such circumstances there was no time for serious discussion of it as a whole, not to mention the actual negotiations on the text.
Mostly because of this, the Chairman's paper turned out raw, clearly inconsistent with the traditionally high standards of international treaties developed under the auspices of the UN. The main problem - approving the ATT draft in its current form would not have helped to resolve the issue of uncontrolled arms trade.
The document omitted the specific practical measures to prevent the spread of weapons in the "gray" and "black" markets. The very task seems to be indicated in the text, but only in very general terms.
However, there is not even a provision stating that the arms supplies are allowed only to structures authorized by the States, therefore providing loopholes for diversion to non-State actors, including terrorists and criminals. Russian proposals were aimed at blocking their access to weapons.
Overall, the project is clearly not up to the highest common standards in the international arms trade. Standards provided by the document are well below those that in compliance with international practices are already being applied not only in Russia but also in many other states. We have serious concerns that the establishment of such a low international threshold would directly or indirectly lead to weakening of the effectiveness of national control systems.
In this regard, Russian delegation favored the continuation of negotiations on the text in order to bring the draft to proper form. This initiative was supported by a number of other participants.
As a result, the Conference has abstained from approving the project. Instead, it was decided to submit the draft Arms Trade Treaty to the UN General Assembly as the document of the Chairman of the Conference in his personal capacity.
The Russian side is ready to continue working together with other delegations to release the document based on the highest international standards in the field of conventional arms transfers and aimed at strengthening of national control systems.
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