UNITED NATIONS SMALL ARMS COORDINATING BODY BRIEFED BY NORWAY'S STATE SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Press Release
DC/2613
UNITED NATIONS SMALL ARMS COORDINATING BODY BRIEFED BY NORWAY'S STATE SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
19980908 NEW YORK, 8 September (Department for Disarmament Affairs) -- On 3 September, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Norway, Aaslaug Haga addressed the first Coordinating Action on Small Arms (CASA) meeting of the mechanism established by the Department for Disarmament Affairs to coordinate United Nations efforts in controlling the excessive accumulation and proliferation of small arms. State Secretary Haga welcomed the establishment of CASA and said that it was a timely initiative to draw together the arms control, humanitarian and developmental concerns over small arms into a coherent policy. Citing as an example the mission to Albania in June of the Under-Secretary- General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, she announced her Government's intention to support the Albanian project for voluntary weapons collection with a contribution of $100,000.State Secretary Haga told CASA that the 21 countries that had met in Oslo on 13 to 14 July (Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and Zimbabwe), had agreed upon elements of understanding, for which they would seek broader political support on 25 September at a ministerial-level meeting, organized by Norway and Canada, at United Nations Headquarters. That meeting is intended to raise the political profile of small arms as an item on the global agenda. The aim of the Oslo process on small arms is to develop a common platform for governmental cooperation with the United Nations, within which non- governmental organizations advocacy initiatives will be welcomed.
During the meeting, the representatives of both Norway and Canada expressed support for holding an international conference on illicit arms trade at an early date, a proposal first made in the report of the Secretary-General on small arms, which was prepared in July 1997 with the assistance of a 16-member Panel of Governmental Experts. * *** *