Vatican supports treaty to regulate sale of conventional weapons

Published: 2006-10-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican expressed strong support for an international treaty to regulate the sale of conventional weapons, saying light arms and small-caliber weapons have been used to harm millions of people in recent decades. Conventional weapons are an element in every civil conflict and constitute "one of the most common instruments in most violations of human rights and disrespect for international law," said a Vatican statement released Oct. 10. The statement, issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, came as the United Nations was debating a proposal by seven countries to take steps toward a legally binding agreement on the import, export and exchange of conventional weapons. Earlier in October, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's U.N. nuncio, told the U.N. General Assembly that the Vatican supported controls on the small-weapons trade.

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