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170 联合国轻武器大会上辩论激烈
Controversy Expected at UN Small Arms Conference
Breck Ardery
United Nations
15 Jul 2001 09:09 UTC
The second week of a two-week United Nations conference on small arms starts Monday and controversy is expected to continue over a 1)draft declaration on the subject.
With formal speeches from the heads of national 2)delegations now over, the conference will hear from members of non-governmental organizations.
Among them will be the National Rifle Association of the United States which strongly suspects there is a hidden 3)agenda at the conference, namely that the United Nations wants to limit legal gun ownership by private citizens.
Conference organizers say all they want to do is devise international standards that would reduce the illegal traffic in small arms and light weapons.
The United States government agrees with those goals but says it will definitely not support any U.N. declaration that would suggest a limitation on the right of U.S. citizens to possess 4)firearms.
But a number of delegates from other nations argue that the United States is creating an unnecessary problem because no United Nations declaration can 5)overturn a U.S. constitutional right.
The reaction of the head of the French delegation, Charles Josselin, is typical. Mr. Josselin told reporters U.S. concerns about the draft declaration are unfounded. "This declaration has nothing to do with the matter of possession [of firearms] but rather it deals with the control of the trade, the trafficking," he said. "I hope this can be cleared up so we can go forward with the 6)negotiations."
As far as other U.S. 7)objections to the proposed U.N. declaration, Mr. Josselin says all sides must be willing to make some 8)compromises. A senior U.S. official says he still hopes agreement on a 9)consensus declaration can be reached by the end of the conference on Friday.
(1) draft[drB:ft; (?@) drAft]n.草稿, 草案vt.起草, 设计v.草拟
(2) delegation[delI5^eIF(E)n]n.代表团, 授权, 委托
(3) agenda[E5dVendE]n.pl.议程
(4) firearms n.火器, 轻武器
(5) overturn[9EJvE`t:n]n.倾覆, 破灭, 革命vt.推翻, 颠倒
(6) negotiation[nI^EJFI5eIF(E)n]n.商议, 谈判, 流通
(7) objection[Eb5dVekF(E)n]n.异议, 缺陷, 妨碍, 拒绝之理由
(8) compromise[5kRmprEmaIz]n.妥协, 折衷v.妥协, 折衷, 危及...的安全
(9) consensus[kEn5sensEs]n.一致同意, 多数人的意见, 舆论
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