联合国今起谈判《武器贸易条约》

　　US, China, Russia seek to weaken arms treaty

　　The world’s three largest arms sellers have raised objections to key elements of a long awaited United Nations arms trade treaty ahead of a meeting in New York today.

　　全球三大军火出口国对各方期待已久的联合国《武器贸易条约》(Arms Trade Treaty)的关键内容提出了反对意见。今日起，联合国将在纽约开会讨论这项条约。

　　The aim of the treaty �C in preparation since 2006 �C is to reduce the 750,000 arms-related deaths that occur each year. But its backers face a tough challenge to reach agreement on a robust treaty ahead of a July 27 deadline.

　　自2006年起开始草拟的这项条约，旨在减少全球与军火相关的死亡人数(现为每年75万)。但要想赶在7月27日的最后期限之前达成一项强有力的条约，该条约的支持者们还面临艰巨挑战。

　　The US, Russia, and China all oppose the inclusion of binding language aimed at preventing arms from being exported to countries where they could be used to undermine human rights.

　　美国、俄罗斯和中国都反对纳入约束性的措辞，这些措辞的目的是阻止向可能使用武器侵犯****的国家出口军火。

　　China and the US also want to narrow the range of weapons the treaty covers. Zimbabwe and Syria, meanwhile, reject the idea of a treaty altogether, according to western diplomats.

　　中国和美国还希望收窄该条约覆盖的武器范围。与此同时，西方外交官称，津巴布韦和叙利亚从根本上反对达成这一条约的构想。

　　The US stance is causing difficulty for the UK, which co-sponsored the treaty and which regards the inclusion of ammunition and robust language on human rights as a priority.

　　美国的姿态正给英国制造难题。英国是支持签署这项条约的国家之一，并把覆盖弹药和在****问题上使用强有力措辞列为条约的重点。

　　The arms trade is already regarded by many as under-regulated. Amnesty International, a human rights group closely involved in the development of the treaty, points out that there are fewer international rules regulating the trade in arms than the trade in bananas.

　　目前已有很多人认为，武器贸易处于监管不足的状态。密切参与该条约拟定过程的****组织“大赦国际”(Amnesty International)指出，目前规范武器贸易的国际规则比规范香蕉贸易的规则还要少。

　　“We need a legally binding, nationally enforced, universal treaty,” said one western diplomat, noting that, while there was widespread support among most UN members, bringing big exporters like as the US, China and Russia on board would take “time and effort, and require skillful diplomacy”.

　　“我们需要一项具有法律约束力、在国家层面执行、普遍适用的条约，”一名西方外交官表示。这名外交官指出，尽管联合国的多数成员国普遍表示支持，但要争取美国、中国和俄罗斯这样的大出口国给予支持，就需要“时间及努力，还要求具备娴熟的外交手腕”。

　　It is still unclear whether this could become it be the forum to address high level disagreements, such as the recent US accusation that Russia was supplying helicopters to war-torn Syria.

　　目前尚不清楚该条约会否成为解决高层次分歧的论坛，比如近期美国指控俄罗斯向战火中的叙利亚供应直升机。

　　But the idea is to force countries to think about the consequences of their arms exports and employ a rigorous risk analysis process, as already happens in areas such as the European Union.

　　不过，该条约的构想是迫使各国考虑其军火出口的后果，并采用一套严谨的风险分析流程，就像欧盟等地已经在实行的政策那样。