18 Mar 2013

UN / ARMS TREATY WRAP

"We have international standards regulating everything from t-shirts to toys to tomatoes. There are international regulations for furniture. That means there are common standards for the global trade in armchairs but not the global trade in arms", Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the opening of the final Arms Trade Treaty in New York today. UNTV

Posted at: March 18, 2013 2:51 pm

Duration: 03:51

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: UN / ARMS TREATY WRAP
TRT: 3.51
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS

DATELINE: 18 MARCH 2013, NEW YORK

SHOTLIST:

FILE – 2012, UNITED NATIONS NORTH LAWN BUILDING, NEW YORK

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations North Lawn building

18 MARCH 2013, NEW YORK

2. Wide shot,. United Nations Secretary-General arrives to meeting
3. Cutaway, conference
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
"We have international standards regulating everything from t-shirts to toys to tomatoes. There are international regulations for furniture.  That means there are common standards for the global trade in armchairs but not the global trade in arms. Families and communities around the world have paid a heavy price. We know this at the United Nations because poorly regulated international arms deals directly affect every dimension of our work."
5. Cutaway, conference
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
"Armed violence kills more than half a million people each year – including 66,000 women and girls. Meanwhile various non-state groups are adding to their arsenals.  Some drug cartels in Latin America now outgun the armies of entire countries. All of these tragedies raise the same questions. Where were these weapons produced? Were they properly licensed for export or re-transfer?  What standards were used to authorize such transfers? And, perhaps the biggest question of all is simply this:  What are we going to do about it?"
7. Cutaway, audience applauds
8. Wide shot, press conference
9. Cutaway, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Anna Macdonald, Head of Arms Control, OXFAM:
"What these negotiations are about is the quality of the treaty text. We are way pass the argument of whether if there will be arms trade treaty, and the question now is what sort of Treaty will it be. And what we are saying from civil society, from the Control Arms Coalition is you need to get it right. Strong treaties are what change international situations. Strong treaties set high standards. Strong treaties change behaviours. Weak treaties change very little."
11. Cutaway, journalists
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Djimon Hounsou, Actor, Activist:
"There is something the international community can do right now, a strong Arms Trade Treaty and I mean a strong Arms Trade Treaty will help restrict the flow of weapons and bullets and make it harder for cattle raiders to attack communities like the one we visited in South Sudan. The government have been conducting campaigns to disarm civilians but this will not be effective if weapons are still easily accessible"
13. Cutaway, journalists
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Duke, Director of the South Sudan Network on Small Arms (SSANA):
"Right now as I speak there are nearly 1.7 million fire arms in circulation among the civilian communities and given the figures from our neighbouring countries like DRC, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Sudan one can strongly assert that the weapons in circulation in our region keep is just efficient to keep hostilities for the next thirty years." 
15. Cutaway, journalists
16. Wide shot, press conference ends

STORYLINE:

"We have international standards regulating everything from t-shirts to toys to tomatoes. There are international regulations for furniture. That means there are common standards for the global trade in armchairs but not the global trade in arms", the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General said today (18 March)

Addressing representatives from 193 Member States attending the final Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) conference at the UN in New York Ban ki-moon added that families and communities around the world had paid a heavy price. "We know this at the United Nations because poorly regulated international arms deals directly affect every dimension of our work."

The last negotiations on the ATT ended in July of last year without agreement. Disappointed, Mr. Ban described it as a "setback" but also noted that States had reached considerable common ground that can be built on.

Ban noted that armed violence killed more than "half a million people each year, including 66,000 women and girls. He said that some drug cartels in Latin America now outgunned the armies of entire countries. And he stressed "All of these tragedies raise the same questions. Where were these weapons produced? Were they properly licensed for export or re-transfer?  What standards were used to authorize such transfers? And, perhaps the biggest question of all is simply this:  What are we going to do about it?"

At a civil society press conference later Anna Macdonald, Head of Arms Control at OXFAM explained that what the negotiations were about was the quality of the treaty text. She stressed that now it was pass the argument of whether if there would be an Arms Trade Treaty. MacDonald said that the question now was, "what sort of Treaty will it be?

She stressed, "Strong treaties are what change international situations. Strong treaties set high standards. Strong treaties change behaviours. Weak treaties change very little."

Also attending the briefing, actor and activist Djimon Hounsou who recently travelled to South Sudan, while noting that the world's newest country was facing many challenges, including inter-communal violence during cattle raids, he stressed that a strong Arms Trade Treaty would help restrict the flow of weapons and bullets and make it harder for cattle raiders to attack communities like the one he visited in South Sudan.

He said, "The (South Sudan) government have been conducting campaigns to disarm civilians but this will not be effective if weapons are still easily accessible."

And Jeffrey Duke, Director of the South Sudan Network on Small Arms (SSANA) pointed out that there were nearly "1.7 million" fire arms in circulation among the civilian communities. Hew added that "given figures from our neighbouring countries like DRC, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Sudan one can strongly assert that the weapons in circulation in our region keep is just efficient to keep hostilities for the next thirty years."

Some 2,000 representatives of Governments, international and regional organizations and civil society have gathered at UN Headquarters to take part in the negotiations and related events.

According to the conference's website, the proposed treaty will not interfere with the domestic arms trade and the way a country regulates civilian possession; ban, or prohibit the export of, any type of weapons; impair States' legitimate right to self-defence; or lower arms regulation standards in countries where these are already at a high level.

An arms trade treaty will, it pointed out, "aim to create a level playing field for international arms transfers by requiring all States to abide by a set of standards for transfer controls, which will ultimately benefit the safety and security of people everywhere in the world."