Canada Accedes to UN Arms Trade Treaty, Part 2

75% “Present and Voting”

Etobicoke, ON -(AmmoLand.com)- Last week we touched on some of the problems with Canada’s accession to the UN Arms Trade Treaty, the primary issue being Canada already meets or exceeds the treaty’s requirements.

Why would we bother acceding to a treaty when we’re already doing what it asks?

The answer is simple: accountability – or perhaps more specifically, the LACK of accountability. To understand that statement, you must understand two things: how the United Nations operates and how the Arms Trade Treaty works.

First, the United Nations operates by consensus. The dictionary definition of consensus is “agreement in the judgment or opinion reached by a group as a whole.” In other words, if the entire UN body cannot agree on an issue then they keep working to find common ground everyone can agree on.

Second, the United Nations operates by consensus except on the Arms Trade Treaty. In this singular case, the Arms Trade Treaty requires only 75% of members present at a meeting to change the terms of that treaty.

That’s right. On a 75% majority vote, the United Nations can dictate law to all countries party to the Arms Trade Treaty.

Now perhaps you see how lack of accountability plays into the hands of the government.

“It’s not our fault! What could we do? The UN is making us do this!”

The institutionalized danger this presents is codified in Article 20 of the Arms Trade Treaty and comes in two parts.

First, the terms under which this treaty may be rewritten and amended:

Article 20. 1. Six years after the entry into force of this Treaty, any State Party may propose an amendment to this Treaty. Thereafter, proposed amendments may only be considered by the Conference of States Parties every three years.

That sounds benign enough, right? Any member state can propose an amendment of any kind after the sixth year after the treaty comes into force and then every three years after that.

Totally harmless provision, you say? Until you realize that the membership of the United Nations – 192 of 195 nations in the world – is comprised of 130 dictatorships. Dictatorships typically aren’t interested in protecting the rights of citizens.

That deplorable number and the fact that consensus is not required is made even worse by Article 20, Section 3:

Article 20. 3. The States Parties shall make every effort to achieve consensus on each amendment. If all efforts at consensus have been exhausted, and no agreement reached, the amendment shall, as a last resort, be adopted by a three-quarters majority vote of the States Parties present and voting at the meeting of the Conference of States Parties. For the purposes of this Article, States Parties present and voting means States Parties present and casting an affirmative or negative vote. The Depositary shall communicate any adopted amendment to all States Parties.

Three issues scream out of this section:

1. Consensus is NOT required.
2. A 75% majority vote carries the amendment – ANY amendment!
3. It is not 75% of all signatories to the Arms Trade Treaty but 75% of those “present and voting”.

When two thirds of the nations of the world are dictatorships and only 75% of those that signed the Arms Trade Treaty and are “present and voting” are required to pass an amendment to the Treaty … well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to comprehend the disaster that potentially awaits us.

Casting Canada’s sovereignty to the wind is undoubtedly a poor idea. Placing Canada’s precious democracy in the hands of a 75% majority of some of the world’s worst brigands and bandits is positively treasonous. For these reasons and more, the previous government shunned the Arms Trade Treaty.

The CSSA calls upon Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion and the Trudeau government to re-examine, re-evaluate and re-think its decision to sign this oppressive treaty.

About CSSA:

The CSSA is the voice of the sport shooter and firearms enthusiast in Canada. Our national membership supports and promotes Canada’s firearms heritage, traditional target shooting competition, modern action shooting sports, hunting, and archery. We support and sponsor competitions and youth programs that promote these Canadian heritage activities.

For more information, visit the website at www.cdnshootingsports.org.