United Nations Overwhelmingly Approves Landmark Global Arms Trade Treaty Louis Charbonneau - Reuters
go to original April 3, 2013

The United Nations has approved the first-ever treaty to regulate the flow of weapons around the world. The Arms Trade Treaty will become international law within months after it's been ratified by 50 countries. It aims to stop arms being used to violate human rights and carry out acts of terrorism. Al Jazeera's Cath Turner reports from New York. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

UNITED NATIONS - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70 billion business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.

The official U.N. tally showed 154 votes in favor, 3 against and 23 abstentions, though diplomats and U.N. officials said the actual vote was 155-3-22 due to Angola being recorded as having abstained and not voting yes. Venezuela, which said it had planned to abstain, Zimbabwe and three other countries were not allowed to vote because they were in arrears on their U.N. dues.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the vote, saying the treaty "will make it more difficult for deadly weapons to be diverted into the illicit market and ... will help to keep warlords, pirates, terrorists, criminals and their like from acquiring deadly arms."

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