For
Treaty Event,
UN Won't Apply
ATT To Arming
Syria Rebels,
Of Mercury
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 19
-- The Arms
Trade Treaty
is five
ratifications
short of going
into effect,
and the UN's
Santiago
Villalpando,
Chief
of the Treaty
Section of the
Office of
Legal Affairs,
told the press
on September
19 that the
the five will
come in soon,
during the UN
General
Debate.
Inner
City Press
asked
Villalpando
how the Arms
Trade Treaty
might apply
for example to
recent
decisions to
provide
weapons to the
Iraqi
government,
the Kurdish
Peshmerga and
now rebels in
Syria.
Villalpando
declined
to answer that
question,
saying the ATT
is only one of
more
than 500
treaties
deposited with
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
One
of these 500
in the Treaty
Event booklet
and of
interest to
Inner
City Press and
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
is listed
under
“Chapter
XVII,” is
“Freedom of
Information.”
This
is ironic, in
that the UN
itself has no
Freedom of
Information
Act or
procedure, as
Inner City
Press has
reported
and the Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
FUNCA, presses
for.
Actually,
though,
this treaty is
about cracking
down on
information.
Yes, this
is the UN.
Masa
Nagai, Deputy
Director of
the Division
of
Environmental
Law and
Conventions of
UNEP, talked
up the
Minamata
Convention on
Mercury.
Inner City
Press asked
about
push-back in
Japan, against
storage
rather than
export of
mercury. Masa
Nagai called
it
“evolutionary.”
This too is
the UN.
Footnote:
Inner
City Press got
the first
question, but
said, “Let's
leave
this
unbranded,”
thanking the
briefer on
behalf of the
journalists
present. It
only says “for
the Free UN
Coalition for
Access” when
the old UN
Correspondents
Association,
turned into
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance when
its Executive
Committee
tried to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
tries to
impose its
brand.
On September
19, none of
them even
came, too busy
in the
privatized
world the UN
grants them.
We'll have
more on this.
, 
