Holy See Calls States to Adopt a Human-Centered Arms Trade Treaty
March 26, 2013: The deliberations of the United Nations Conference on the Final Conference
on the Arms Trade Treaty – to prohibit the transfer of arms when violations of humanitarian
or human rights law are taking place- is on at the United Nations Headquarters in
New York. Throughout this process the Holy See Delegation has been active in promoting
a treaty which places the human person as the overriding consideration. Archbishop
Francis Chullikatt, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and
the Holy See’s Head of Delegation to the Final Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty,
on Monday urged delegations to work together in a consensual manner to achieve a historic
treaty to control the international trade in arms, revealed a communique from the
Holy See mission. Since the start of negotiations, the Holy See has called for
“a strong, effective and credible Arms Trade Treaty which will have a real and lasting
impact on all people longing to live in a more secure and safe world.”
The
Holy See has stressed that a responsible international arms trading system should
provide strong protections against the transfer of arms to countries where such arms
are being used against civilian populations in violation of internationally agreed
humanitarian and human rights laws. Further, the Holy See has urged delegations to
reorient the regulation of the trade in arms from one which is controlled through
the lens of sheer economic interests to one which places overriding importance on
human concerns and protecting human life and families.
While pressing for a
forward looking and “future-proof” Arms Trade Treaty, the Holy See in its interventions
has called for States to adhere to the legal principle of expressio unius est exclusio
alterius (i.e. inclusion of one thing implies the exclusion of another), and thus
consistently spoken out against selecting one group or type of violence in the text.
Proposals to specifically mention “gender-based violence”, the Holy See delegation
asserted, risk serving to exclude a vast number of victims of armed violence from
protection by the treaty. The Holy See has therefore argued that protections for
women, men, children, families, disabled, elderly, refugees, migrants, internally
displaced people, ethnic and religious minorities, and all other internationally protected
categories of people are more comprehensively addressed by the provisions in the treaty
which prohibit the transfer of arms where human rights and humanitarian law are being
violated.
The United Nations Final Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty is scheduled
to conclude negotiations on 28 March 2013 at the United Nations Headquarters in New
York.