UN/Treaties

The State Department says covering ammunition in the treaty would have "significant administrative and financial costs."

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said charges that the U.N. agency violated sanctions "cannot go overlooked or unpunished.” 

The U.S. set down a list of “redlines” as the first week of treaty negotiations came to a close.

The United Nations's Human Rights Council on Thursday backed a first-of-its-kind resolution affirming that people have the same rights in the digital world as they do offline, including freedom of expression.

More than 80 countries signed on to co-sponsor the Internet freedom resolution, including 30 members of the council. The United States, Tunisia, Brazil, Nigeria, Turkey and Sweden presented the resolution. 

“This outcome is momentous for the Human Rights Council,” said Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe. “It’s the first ever UN resolution affirming that human rights in the digital realm must be protected and promoted to the same extent and with the same commitment as human rights in the physical world.”

Sen. Dick Lugar's (R-Ind.) primary defeat earlier this year won't prevent him from visiting the former Soviet Union to check up on the progress of his signature nuclear disarmament program.

The GOP's elder statesman on foreign affairs announced Tuesday that he will travel to Russia and Ukraine next month to check up on the progress of the 1991 law he coauthored with then-Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) to provide U.S. expertise in helping the former Soviet Union dismantle its arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus are nuclear weapon-free thanks to the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which was expanded to countries outside the former Soviet Union in 2003.

Lugar added that he continues to work with the Department of Defense on expanding the program to other countries after leading a mission to east Africa two years ago. 

Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, refused to compromise on his bipartisan and multilateral approach to foreign affairs even as the conservative Tea Party gained more control over Republican politics in recent years. That stance led to his defeat by Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, but Lugar since then has opted to tout his legislative accomplishments over a 36-year Senate career while working with committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) for Senate passage of the U.N.'s Law of the Sea Treaty later this year.

Lawmakers tell Obama they object to a treaty that impinges on gun rights and U.S. sovereignty in any way

Thomas Donohue, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — and no friend of the Obama administration — said Thursday that he helped instigate the latest push to get the United States to accede to the United Nations's Law of the Sea Treaty.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) repeatedly drew attention to Donohue's support in a bid to deflect conservative attacks during his panel's fourth hearing on the treaty. Some critics have alleged that Kerry is pushing the treaty to ingratiate himself with the White House in order to gain the secretary of State job if President Obama is reelected. 

“Everybody's kind of got it wrong so far,” Kerry said. “I was actually out to dinner with Tom Donohue, maybe a year and a half ago ... and at the very end of the dinner Tom turned to me and said, 'when are you going to get this Law of the Sea Treaty done?' And I was completely taken aback.”

Advocates of an international arms sales treaty being written in the United Nations next month say they agree it shouldn't affect U.S. gun rights but that Republican demands go too far. 

In a speech before the Heritage Foundation last week, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) outlined several caveats he wants written into the treaty, including that it not apply to civilian arms and ammunition. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, a coalition of human rights and evangelical groups said those restrictions would gut the treaty.

“This is where we part ways,” said Scott Stedjan, senior adviser for Oxfam America. “What is a civilian arm is a real concern. I don't think anybody wants the United Nations to define what is a civilian weapon is, what a military weapon is, because different countries have different views. That would never happen, plus small arms and light weapons are the weapons that … are wreaking the most havoc and that we most need control over.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) might not expect a vote on the Law of the Sea Treaty until after the November elections, but that isn’t stopping him from presenting his full-fledged case for the treaty. 

Kerry is bringing some big guns in for his committee’s fourth hearing in the past two months on the long-stalled treaty. The latest hearing will focus on the business community, which has mostly come out in support of the sea treaty.

The witness list for Thursday’s hearing is filled with top executives: the Chamber of Commerce’s Thomas Donohue, Verizon Communication’s Lowell McAdam, American Petroleum Institute’s Jack Gerard and National Association of Manufacturer’s Jay Timmons.

The United Nations is slated to craft a long-delayed international treaty next month.