At
UN,
Small Arms
Consensus
Reached,
Occupation In,
Arms Embargoes
Out
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 7 --
For two weeks,
some delegates
in the Small
Arms meeting
in UN
Conference
Room 1 lounged
around
waiting, as
political
issues about
this
"politically
binding" (but
not
legally
binding)
program of
action got
thrashed out
in smaller
rooms
one floor
above.
On
the morning of
Friday, the
review
conference's
last day,
Inner City
Press was told
that the issue
of how to
refer to
Security
Council
arms
embargoes,
objected to by
Iran and North
Korea, had
been
finessed.
The draft
A/CONF.192/2012/RC/CRP.2
had member
states
undertaking
"to take
appropriate
measures
against any
activity that
violates a UN
Security
Council arms
embargo."
This
explicit
reference was
dropped;
proponents
were able to
say it was
indirectly
kept in by
reference.
Kept in was a
reference to
"occupation,"
leading both
Israel and the
US to
disassociate
themselves in
final
statements
Friday at 6
pm.
Still,
even these two
offered their
thanks and
congratulations
to Program of
Action review
conference
chair Joy Ogwu
of Nigeria.
One delegation
said that
women should
chair all such
review
conferences.
Liberia
bragged about
its two recent
Nobel Peace
prize winners.
Sudan praised
the outcome.
There
remained other
issues that
some countries
bemoaned not
being in,
ranging from
ammunition,
border
controls and
MAN-PADS to
"gender
perspectives"
and children
and armed
conflict.
Regardless, a
deal was
made. It was
like the Arms
Trade Treaty
(which failed)
except that
the stakes
were lower.
And so
consensus was
reached, the
two weeks of
loitering and
spending were
justified, and
the UN
reloaded.
Palestine,
which
as first
reported by
Inner City
Press was
blocked from
full
participation
by a ruling by
Ban
Ki-moon's top
lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien,
says there are
no more such
conferences
this year,
except perhaps
a reconvening
of the Law of
the
Sea Treaty, to
elect another
representative
from the
Eastern Europe
group. They
are ready.
Watch this
site.
, 
