Mongolia’s Amnesty International branch urges control of the arms trade
-How effective are the worldwide measures and actions against the arms trade and violence against women?
-It is typical for abused women to be without proper medical treatment or financial support to allow them to overcome their hardships, while those who commit abuse are still on the loose, without being arrested or punished for their wrongdoings. The major measures proposed relate to monitoring peace treaties and agreements regarding confiscation of arms, and ending conflict through peaceful means, but these have often not involved women’s opinions and views. This is against United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
While there are a great number of strict and detailed laws and regulations relating to the international trade of bananas, there is apparently no effective agreement to control arms trade around the world. In the meantime, one person dies every minute as a result of the arms trade. It victimizes thousands of women and children. Every minute, 15 arms are manufactured.
There is an urgent need for an agreement that prohibits arms manufacturing companies from exporting arms and their associated tools to governments, companies or armed gangs that ruthlessly use them against innocent people.
-What is preventing the initiative to stop the sale of arms to undesirable groups?
-The reason that an effective agreement still hasn’t been adopted is because the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have not taken the required action. The Security Council is supposed to keep and sustain international peace. But the governments of these five countries control approximately 70 percent of the 70 billion USD earned from the worldwide arms trade, excluding nuclear weapons. For decades now, arms manufacturing countries have been illegally trading arms without international controls. The United Nations Final Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty is set to begin on March 18 in New York.
-Will this conference lead to any solutions for the arms trade?
-Amnesty International has urged governments to discuss and adopt a treaty on the arms trade, which includes the following conditions: First, arms manufacturing companies will be prohibited from exporting arms to countries where the arms are very likely to be used in defiance of international human rights laws. Also, the treaty must clearly assure that risk reduction and assessment procedures must be an inseparable part of national export control structures. The international trade of arms, weapons, defense tools, and equipment must all be under strict supervision.
Furthermore, we are demanding that the treaty include strict and efficient mechanisms to require that reports be publically announced; to impose legal actions on those who have violated the treaty, so as to ensure its effective implementation; and to terminate the sales permits of manufacturers found operating against the treaty.
At the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, “Look at the World through Women’s Eyes,” held on March 2, members of the Mongolian Branch of Amnesty International raised the issue that women and children are victims of armed conflicts worldwide.
We are conducting various actions, including a campaign to collect signatures for a letter addressed to the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, which proposes that he adopt a treaty to control the arms trade. We are also raising awareness about the arms trade among the Mongolian public and publicizing the proposed treaty by visiting several universities between March 11 and 17.
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