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October
23, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 18Oakland,
CA
Vatican supports
treaty to regulate
sale of all conventional weapons
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican expressed strong support
for an international treaty to regulate the sale of conventional weapons,
saying light arms and small-caliber weapons have been used to harm millions
of people in recent decades.
Conventional weapons are an element in every civil conflict and constitute
“one of the most common instruments in most violations of human
rights and disrespect for international law,” said a Vatican statement
released Oct. 10.
The statement, issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,
came as the United Nations was debating a proposal by seven countries
to take steps toward a legally binding agreement on the import, export
and exchange of conventional weapons.
Earlier in October, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s
U.N. nuncio, told the U.N. General Assembly that the Vatican supported
controls on the small-weapons trade.
The new Vatican statement expanded on that position, saying it was time
for the international community to regulate the trade of conventional
weapons of every type, as well as the know-how and technology for their
production.
It said that while the United Nations has taken a number of steps to deal
with nuclear
proliferation and weapons of mass destruction proposals for general disarmament
have not advanced.
As a result, local and regional conflicts have continued to cause many
millions of victims, weaken social institutions and damage development
in many countries, it said.
“Indiscriminate sale or transfer of conventional weapons is an inseparable
part of problems connected with international terrorism, illegal trafficking
of precious or strategic resources, and the most abject manifestations
of organized crime such as trafficking of human beings or drugs,”
it said.
The Vatican statement argued that weapons cannot be considered as just
another commodity to be bought and sold on global markets.
“Their possession, production and trade have deep ethical and social
implications, and they must be regulated by paying due attention to specific
principles of the moral and legal order,” it said.
Among them is the “principle of sufficiency,” which allows
states to possess only the means necessary to guarantee the legitimate
protection of their people, it said, citing the Compendium of the Social
Doctrine of the Church.
“Therefore, the adoption of instruments and legally binding measures
on trade control of conventional weapons on the global, regional and national
level is essential and urgent,” it said.
Such a step would be a sign of a “definite political will for peace
and justice in the world,” it said.
An estimated 640 million conventional weapons exist in the world today.
The small-arms trade is estimated to be a $4 billion business annually.
In July, seven countries – Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Finland,
Japan, Kenya and the United Kingdom – proposed that the United Nations
establish a group of governmental experts to study the feasibility of
a binding agreement on the conventional weapons trade. In October, the
proposal was being discussed by a committee of the U.N. General Assembly.
The United States so far has not supported the treaty, said Taylor Thompson,
spokeswoman for the Control Arms Campaign.
