Japan has drafted a U.N. resolution urging the world body to address the issue of the illicit global trade in small arms that critics say are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year.
A draft of the resolution, made available to Kyodo News on Friday, calls on the United Nations General Assembly to convene a conference of states in July or September next year to address the matter.
The U.N. adopted an action program in July last year calling for the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons to be eradicated "in all its aspects."
Diplomatic sources said Japan, which played a key role in getting the U.N.'s efforts to crack down on small arms in motion, plans to submit the resolution to the upcoming session of the U.N. General Assembly, which gets under way in New York next month.