Negotiations for an Arms Trade Treaty have achieved "very limited progress," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday as he called on governments to show flexibility and good faith to reach an agreement, dpa reported.
According to Ban, the three-week conference at UN headquarters in New York, set to end Friday, should yield a "robust and legally binding treaty that will have a real impact on the lives of those millions of people suffering from the consequences of armed conflict, repression and armed violence."
Campaigners for a strong treaty also issued calls for governments to strengthen the language in the draft treaty because it still contained too many loopholes. They in particular appealed to US President Barack Obama to change his administration's stance at the negotiations. The US has opposed the inclusion of regulations on munition exports and demands for human rights protection.
Amnesty International USA, Oxfam America, the Arms Control Association and United to Prevent Genocide sent a letter to Obama Thursday asking for his leadership in closing remaining loopholes in the treaty's text.
"A robust and effective Arms Trade Treaty would establish international standards, which would ban all arms transfers that could facilitate genocide, crimes against humanity, and serious war crimes," the letter said.
The letter also said countries should be required to adopt strong domestic laws governing the flow of exports and imports of weapons.
"The end is in sight for a global arms trade treaty, but its success depends on the United States," said Scott Stedjan, senior policy advisor with Oxfam America.
"Washington needs to back a strong text to prevent the negotiations from collapsing." With negotiations scheduled to close Friday, many campaigners and negotiators fear that time was too short to obtain a strong text because of opposition from arms exporters as well as countries that prefer no treaty at all.
The text being negotiated would allow governments to rely on national rather than international laws to export weapons. The main criteria demanded by many countries and campaigners would link arms exports to respect for human rights - a demand was not shared by all governments.