Speech delivered by Me. Hazem Ksouri

President of Free Tunisia Association

During the United Nations’ Diplomatic Conference on Arms Trade Treaty

New York, 11 July 2012

Mr. President,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am glad to be present among you in this historic conference, in the middle of the

Arab spring that started from Tunisia in particular and moved to the entire Arab

region in peaceful actions aspiring to freedom, dignity, and social justice. The joy

of this spring is still missing because of the clanging sound of weapons and gun

machines in Thala, Kasserine, Benghazi, El Houla, Homs, Talbisesa and Gaza,

which resulted in the death of innocents, among them women and children, whose

blood paved the path to freedom in this land extending from sea to sea, in order to

overthrow regimes that have always ignored the will of people and their longing to

life.

This would have never happened had there been strong national, regional and

international mechanisms aimed at putting an end to the spread of arms and

regulating their trade.

The fearful shouts of international civil society a decade ago were and still are the

strongest alarm calling for global awareness about arms trade control and

regulation worldwide. The lack of arms trade regulation is the main reason of

“excessive violence, excessive killing and excessive assault on the most basic of

living conditions.”

The availability of arms and their unregulated trade is unacceptable. Even if we

want these arms to resist the occupation, to protect our homeland and to defend

people’s right to self-determination, we don’t want these arms if they are used to

commit substantial violations of human rights, or if they are used in organized

crimes, in terrorist actions, in undermining development, in increasing poverty, in

entrenching corruption practices, or glorifying any type of violence.

We came here carrying the people’s suffering and pain: the suffering of a mother

who lost her son in Tunisia, the suffering of the wounded in Libya, the suffering of

tens of thousands of displaced, detained and kidnapped people in Syria, where the

evidence of crimes committed against humanity by the Syrian government

increases daily. The presence of a robust and efficient Arms Trade Treaty would

help stop the transfer of arms to different parties there and prevent such crimes.

Mr. President,

Human rights are exactly the right of people to self-determination and the right of

states to sovereignty and independence. What Libya has undergone since the

people took the decision to overthrow the regime peacefully would have never

have happened had there not been arms available for killing and destruction.

Similarly would have been prevented the bloody revolutions that occurred in

Yemen and Bahrain, and occur today in Syria and Sudan. Not least would have

been prevented the sufferings of the Palestinian people, an endless suffering with

chapters still being written today. Where were the ethical and legal regulations

through all of this? We do await this treaty. We are in urgent need of this treaty.

Let there be an end to this trade; let there be an Arms Trade Treaty forming the

binding legal frame. Reality says not to make the treaty bear what it cannot afford

to, such as considering it the only framework for solving the problems that our

region is going through, for this impossible; however, it says that arms’ trade

regulation and chaos control could positively affect the endeavors aimed at putting

an end to armed violence, as well as reinforcing and building peace in our

countries and in the whole world.

Mr. President,

We acknowledge the importance of getting rid of nuclear weapons and making the

Middle East free from nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction.

Although we hope that this path reaches a satisfying end in the conference

dedicated to it at the end of the current year, we strongly consider this conference a

historic opportunity for regulating conventional arms trade.

There is no doubt of the legitimacy of state’s right to defend themselves and of

people’s right to self-determination, or of the inadmissibility of the occupation of

others’ lands. Neither can be questioned the recognition of the states’ right to

national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and therefore their right to produce,

export, import, and transfer conventional arms are all legitimate rights. But, this

treaty is expected to regulate this trade and prevent to any political, commercial or

economic exploitation practiced by any party whatsoever.

We heard heard, during the present conference, the interventions of the states that

shed light on the procedural steps; we urgently call you today to address the

subject of the treaty, in order to defend a legal document that would really protect

the people of the region and the whole world.

This global treaty that we are awaiting shall cover police and security arms, which

were used to repress peaceful protests resulting in numerous deaths and injuries in

several countries, among them Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, and which are still being

used in Syria and Bahrain. The report Amnesty International issued last October

noted that “the main countries exporting arms to the Middle East over recent years

have included Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany,

Italy, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States of America.”

The civil society organizations in our region confirm, along with the Control Arms

Coalition, the necessity of including the legal obligations of the states in the treaty,

as well as their other responsibilities.

We hope that your esteemed delegations will positively and efficiently contribute

to drafting a robust and efficient global treaty that would reflect the hopes and

aspirations of our populations. This is what is needed is to be up to peoples’

aspirations after all the suffering they went through. They deserve to live in

dignity, not in humiliation. They deserve freedom, not slavery. They deserve life,

not death.

Let’s work together, hand in hand, complementing each other as international,

regional, and civil society organizations and states for a free world and safe, happy

peoples.

Thank you.