More than 170 countries have spent the past month in New York negotiating a treaty, which needed to be adopted by consensus, so any one country effectively could have vetoed a deal. Instead, no decision was taken on a draft treaty.
But this leaves the door open for further talks and a draft arms-trade treaty could be brought to the 193-nation UN General Assembly and adopted with a two-thirds majority vote. Diplomats said there could be a vote by the end of the year.
“We feel that we could have agreed (a treaty). It is disappointing that more time is needed. But an arms-trade treaty is coming – not today – but soon. We’ve taken a big step forward,” said a spokesman for Britain’s delegation.
One person every minute dies from armed violence around the world, and arms control activists say a convention is needed to prevent illicitly traded guns from pouring into conflict zones and fueling wars and atrocities. They cited conflicts in Syria and elsewhere as examples of why a treaty is necessary.
While most UN member states favored a strong treaty, activists said there was a small minority of states, including Syria, North Korea, Iran, Egypt and Algeria, who loudly voiced opposition to global arms control throughout the negotiations.
But ultimately, arms-control activists blamed the United States and Russia for the inability to reach a decision on Friday, as both countries said there was not enough time left for them to clarify and resolve issues they had with the draft treaty.
“Moving forward, President Obama must show the political courage required to make a strong treaty that contains strong rules on human rights a reality,” said Scott Stedjan, a senior policy advisor at Oxfam America, which fights poverty and other injustices.
It covered all conventional arms in the categories of battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, and small arms and light weapons.
The treaty would only have come into effect after it was ratified by 65 countries.
The draft arms-trade treaty under negotiation required countries to assess if a proposed arms export could be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian or human rights law.
“The conference’s inability to conclude its work on this much-awaited ATT, despite years of effort of member states and civil society from many countries, is a setback,” said
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed disappointment the meetings were inconclusive but was encouraged UN members will continue pursuing “this noble goal.”
“There is already considerable common ground and states can build on the hard work that has been done during these negotiations,” he said.
At final day of the talks on Friday, major weapons producers, including the United States and Russia, said more time was needed to examine the chairperson's draft proposal.The talks started on July 3rd at UN headquarters in New York. The goal was to introduce controls on the global trade of conventional weapons, which are not regulated internationally unlike weapons of mass destruction.A French representative expressed disappointment that talks failed when an agreement appeared so close.
Japanese representative Yoshiya Muto said holding a month of discussions was, in itself, a great achievement and that he believes it will lead to the next stage.He said Japan will push for restarting the talks by working with more than 80 countries that are seeking the treaty.Resuming the talks will require a decision at the UN General Assembly, but there is no such prospect at the moment.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that he was disappointed they had failed to agree on a treaty, which would have become a common standard for the international trade of conventional weapons
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