UN world conference on small arms collapses without agreement
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Media release: UN world conference on small arms collapses without agreement
Control Arms Campaign: Oxfam International, Amnesty International and International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)
http://www.controlarms.org/events/unreview.htm
The UN world conference on small arms has collapsed without agreement, despite the majority of governments, including the European Union, and many African and Latin American governments, backing tougher controls on the international trade in small arms and light weapons.
The conference, which ended on Friday 7 July, collapsed after a small number of states, most prominently the United States, blocked key issues so consistently that no agreement was possible.
During the conference, moves to agree global controls on the small arms trade were blocked by Cuba, India, Iran, Israel and Pakistan.
"The world has been held hostage by a tiny minority of countries. At the current rate, up to 12,000 people will have been killed by small arms during this two-week conference. They have been betrayed." said Anna Macdonald, Oxfam International's Control Arms Campaign manager.
The Control Arms Campaign is now taking its call for tougher global arms controls to the UN General Assembly in October. There, decisions are frequently put to a vote, meaning that a small minority of governments cannot block progress. Several governments have already indicated that they want a resolution to be put to the UN General Assembly first committee calling for negotiations to begin on a legally-binding global Arms Trade Treaty.
"The world desperately needs a tough and well-enforced Arms Trade Treaty to stop the present flow of weaponry to serious abusers of human rights," said Brian Wood, Amnesty International's research manager for the arms trade.
The Control Arms Campaign has called on governments to establish such a treaty and to agree global guidelines for small arms sales to stop weapons fuelling human rights abuses and poverty around the world.
"By allowing this meeting to fail, governments have squandered the opportunity to take action that would have saved lives around the world. It is unacceptable for two weeks of talking to produce no outcome, particularly when 1000 people are still dying at gunpoint every day." said Rebecca Peters, Director of IANSA.
Over one million people from 160 countries backed the Control Arms campaign by joining the Million Faces Petition, which was presented to UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on the first day of the conference, Monday 26 June.
Julius Arile, who presented the Million Faces Petition to Kofi Annan said: "I came to this conference to ask the world?fs governments to stop guns flooding into the area where I live in northern Kenya. I have lost many friends and even my brother to armed violence. I'm deeply disappointed that the world has done nothing to help me and the millions of people like me."
Control Arms Campaign: Oxfam International, Amnesty International and International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)
http://www.controlarms.org/events/unreview.htm
The UN world conference on small arms has collapsed without agreement, despite the majority of governments, including the European Union, and many African and Latin American governments, backing tougher controls on the international trade in small arms and light weapons.
The conference, which ended on Friday 7 July, collapsed after a small number of states, most prominently the United States, blocked key issues so consistently that no agreement was possible.
During the conference, moves to agree global controls on the small arms trade were blocked by Cuba, India, Iran, Israel and Pakistan.
"The world has been held hostage by a tiny minority of countries. At the current rate, up to 12,000 people will have been killed by small arms during this two-week conference. They have been betrayed." said Anna Macdonald, Oxfam International's Control Arms Campaign manager.
The Control Arms Campaign is now taking its call for tougher global arms controls to the UN General Assembly in October. There, decisions are frequently put to a vote, meaning that a small minority of governments cannot block progress. Several governments have already indicated that they want a resolution to be put to the UN General Assembly first committee calling for negotiations to begin on a legally-binding global Arms Trade Treaty.
"The world desperately needs a tough and well-enforced Arms Trade Treaty to stop the present flow of weaponry to serious abusers of human rights," said Brian Wood, Amnesty International's research manager for the arms trade.
The Control Arms Campaign has called on governments to establish such a treaty and to agree global guidelines for small arms sales to stop weapons fuelling human rights abuses and poverty around the world.
"By allowing this meeting to fail, governments have squandered the opportunity to take action that would have saved lives around the world. It is unacceptable for two weeks of talking to produce no outcome, particularly when 1000 people are still dying at gunpoint every day." said Rebecca Peters, Director of IANSA.
Over one million people from 160 countries backed the Control Arms campaign by joining the Million Faces Petition, which was presented to UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on the first day of the conference, Monday 26 June.
Julius Arile, who presented the Million Faces Petition to Kofi Annan said: "I came to this conference to ask the world?fs governments to stop guns flooding into the area where I live in northern Kenya. I have lost many friends and even my brother to armed violence. I'm deeply disappointed that the world has done nothing to help me and the millions of people like me."
www.amnesty.org
www.amnesty.org.uk
www.amnesty.org.uk
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ARM THEM!
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/kopel_gallant_eisen200408180824.asp
THE FIFTH AUXILIARY RIGHT
The Darfur genocide is more proof that the human rights ostensibly guaranteed by U.N. documents often disappear when the people are disarmed, and are thereby unable to prevent a tyranny from usurping their sovereignty. As the American Founders recognized, political power often does grow out of the barrel of a gun. If you are disarmed, you are at the mercy of an armed government.
In Sudan, it is virtually impossible for an average citizen to lawfully acquire and possess the means for self-defense. According to gun-control statutes, a gun licensee must be over 30 years of age, must have a specified social and economic status, and must be examined physically by a doctor. Females have even more difficulty meeting these requirements because of social and occupational limitations.
When these restrictions are finally overcome, there are additional restrictions on the amount of ammunition one may possess, making it nearly impossible for a law-abiding gun owner to achieve proficiency with firearms. A handgun owner, for example, can only purchase 15 rounds of ammunition a year. The penalties for violation of Sudan's firearms laws are severe, and can include capital punishment.
International gun-control groups complain that Sudan's gun laws are not strict enough — but the real problem with the laws is that they can be enforced arbitrarily. The government can refuse gun permits to the victims in Darfur and execute anyone who obtains a self-defense gun. Meanwhile, the Arab militias can obtain guns with government approval, or the government can simply ignore illegal gun possession by Arabs.
The blacks in Sudan therefore face a situation somewhat like that of blacks in the 19th-century American south. There, ostensibly neutral gun-control laws were enforced vigorously against blacks, amounting to de facto prohibition. Meanwhile, the governments of the post-bellum south allowed the terrorist KKK to arm with impunity, and the Sudanese government does the same for Arab terrorist militias. The result: second-class citizenship for American blacks, and genocide for Sudanese blacks.
The solution to the worldwide violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the worldwide recognition of one more human right. As the great English jurist William Blackstone explained, core human rights would be "the dead letter of the laws" if not guarded by "auxiliary rights." So the law "has therefore established certain other auxiliary subordinate rights of the subject, which serve principally as barriers to protect and maintain inviolate the three great and primary rights, of personal security, personal liberty, and private property."
Thus, "The fifth and last auxiliary right of the subject...is that of having arms for their defence, suitable to their condition and degree, and such as are allowed by law. Which is also declared by the same statute ...and is indeed a public allowance, under due restrictions, of the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression."
The Darfur genocide — like the genocides in Rwanda, Srebrenica, Cambodia, and so many other nations in the last century — was made possible only by the prior destruction of that fifth auxiliary right.
It is long past time for the United Nations and the rest of the international community to do more than bemoan genocide after the fact. It is time for formal international law to recognize the natural right of self-defense, and to acknowledge the universal human right of "having arms for their defense" so that, as a last resort, victims can "restrain the violence of oppression." As history has shown, as long as dictatorships exist, the only way to ensure the primary right to life is to guarantee the auxiliary right to arms.
we can take care of ourselves.. we don't need any international bodies re-writing our laws.
do you even know what the small arms trade is? it'a about trading across international borders, not usurping your precious 2nd amendment.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
www.amnesty.org.uk