U.S. Fails to Join Allies in Signing UN Weapons Treaty

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

The U.S. didn’t join the U.K., France and other major Western allies at the United Nations today to sign the first international treaty regulating the $85 billion-a-year global arms trade.

The absence of the world’s top arms dealer at a morning ceremony in New York drawing about 60 nations casts a shadow over a decades-long push to stop illegal cross-border shipments of conventional weapons. Some of the world’s most violent nations, from drug-plagued Mexico to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, are among the signatories.

While supporters say the treaty wouldn’t affect U.S. domestic sales or impinge on the constitutional right to bear arms, it would be a political minefield at home. The accord wouldn’t muster enough votes for approval by the U.S. Senate, and the National Rifle Association, which says it has more than 4.5 million members, has lobbied against it.

“I suspect they probably took a decision that, politically, it made sense not to completely alienate people in Congress on something that, in their opinion, doesn’t matter when they sign it as long as they sign it,” said Adotei Akwei, Amnesty International USA’s managing director for government relations, in a May 31 telephone interview.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-03/u-s-fails-to-join-allies-in-signing-un-weapons-treaty.html

[pscot]

1. Political cowardice of a high order

[lark]

2. Sad fact.

US government is for big business and against everything else, even child safety. I get that Obama would not win this in congress, but they would have shown a lot more integrity by at least taking a stand.

[premium]

3. I said right from the start that there was no way,

no how, this treaty was going to get 2/3 of the Senate to vote in favor of it. It would have taken 67 yea votes for it to be ratified and the votes just weren't there.

[azurnoir]

4. Oddly the US approved of the UN measure itself but then refuses to sign it

another case of justus US style?

[quadrature]

7. how so? who exactly is the 'US' doing the approval. nt

nt

[azurnoir]

8. The US approved of the UN adopting the treaty itself but then refused to sign it

see the map green indicates countries that approved the key is at the link



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arms_Trade_Treaty_UN_adoption.svg

[quadrature]

9. so.. one person working at the UN ...

decides all this for 300 million people???


NOT

[azurnoir]

10. that does not change the fact that the US approved of the UN adopting a measure it refuses to sign

but I find your reasoning here interesting are you sying that the US's representative to the UN acts as a lone wolf-that it does not represent the POTUS and state departments policies and wishes?

the measure got voted down largely by the GOP with of course a few Dems climbing on a board with them, it was in the Senate that this measure was trashed

eta from the article

In the U.S. Senate, a two-thirds majority would be needed for Senate ratification. On March 23, senators voted 53-46 for a symbolic measure opposing U.S. participation in the treaty. Eight Democrats and all 45 Senate Republicans opposed it.

[quadrature]

11. a distinction without a difference.

OK, the Obama administration
'''''signs'''' some treaty or another.
(without ratification)

does not obligate the US to anything
does not give Obama any additional authority

means nothing beyond lip service

[azurnoir]

13. The US did not actually sign the treaty what the US did was to approve

of the UN adopting the treaty apparently for others to sign and then refused to sign it ourselves-something that should be sort of embarrassing for the US at least IMO

[pmorlan1]

5. Words - No Action

Our government is good at talking the talk but not very good at walking the walk.

[red dog 1]

6. As the world's top arms dealer, the U.S. should have signed the treaty

Then, when and if t failed to get the necessary votes in the Senate, Obama & the Senate Dems could tell the American people..."Look what the obstructionist Republicans did now!"

[dipsydoodle]

12. Kerry says it will be signed when :

The United States, the world's No. 1 arms exporter, will sign the treaty as soon as all the official U.N. translations of the document are completed, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

"The signing of the Arms Trade Treaty gives hope to the millions affected by armed violence every day," said Anna Macdonald of the humanitarian group Oxfam. "The devastating humanitarian consequences of the ... conflict in Syria underline just how urgently regulation of the arms trade is needed."

"Gunrunners and dictators have been sent a clear message that their time of easy access to weapons is up," she added. "For generations the arms trade has been shrouded in secrecy but from now on it will be open to scrutiny."

Arms control activists and rights groups say one person dies every minute as a result of armed violence and the treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/06/03/uk-arms-treaty-un-idUKBRE9520SD20130603

If the US doesn't sign then you'll know he lied - its that simple.