PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR UN CONFERENCE ON ILLICIT TRADE IN SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS FROM 28 FEBRUARY TO 3 MARCH
Press Release
DC/2679
PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR UN CONFERENCE ON ILLICIT TRADE IN SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS TO MEET AT HEADQUARTERS FROM 28 FEBRUARY TO 3 MARCH
20000225 Background ReleaseThe Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects will hold its first session from 28 February to 3 March at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The Preparatory Committee has been requested by the Assembly to decide at its first session on the dates and venue of the 2001 Conference as well as on the dates and venues of its subsequent sessions. The Committee has also been requested to take a decision on the modalities of attendance by non-governmental organizations at its sessions and to make recommendations to the Conference on all relevant matters, including the objective, a draft agenda, draft rules of procedure and draft final documents, which will include a programme of action. The Provisional Agenda is available in document A/CONF.192/PC/1 (see http://www.un.org/Depts/dda/CAB/index.htm).
During the first two days of the session, the Committee will elect the members of its bureau and hold its general debate, after which it will exchange views on the agenda items outlined above. Carlos Dos Santos (Mozambique) has been nominated by the Group of African States to serve as Chairman of the Preparatory Committee.
The issue of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons first appeared on the international political agenda in December 1995 when the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General, with the assistance of a panel of experts, to report on the nature and causes of their accumulation and transfer, and on ways and means to prevent and reduce them. In that report, submitted in August 1997 (document A/52/298), the Panel of Governmental Experts on Small Arms found that almost every part of the Organization is dealing with the consequences of recent armed conflicts fought mostly with small arms and light weapons. Subsequent to a follow-up Assembly resolution in December 1997, a Group of Governmental Experts on Small Arms was established to assist the Secretary-General in preparing a report on the progress made in implementing the 24 recommendations of the Panel and on further actions to be taken (document A/54/258).
The Group of Governmental Experts was also asked to make recommendations on the objective, scope, agenda, dates, venue and preparatory committee of this Conference. Among its recommendations, the Group proposed that the Conference consider a broad range of measures to reinforce and further coordinate efforts
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to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. The Group noted that much of the trade in small arms and light weapons consists of legal transfers to meet the legitimate needs of States for self- defence, to maintain public security within the rule of law and to enable participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations.
Since 1997, a number of global and regional initiatives have emerged to curb the destabilizing accumulation and transfer of small arms. Those include a moratorium on the Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Small Arms and Light Weapons in West Africa by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials; the European Union Joint Action on Small Arms; the July 1999 Decision on the Proliferation, Circulation and Illicit Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons taken by the heads of State and government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU); and the August 1999 Decisions of the Council of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on the Prevention and Combating of Illicit Trafficking in Small Arms and Related Crimes.
Negotiations are also under way in Vienna to elaborate an international convention against transnational crime, including a revised draft protocol against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition and other related materials. Those negotiations are expected to conclude later in the year. Furthermore, the Secretary-General has been requested to prepare a study on the feasibility of restricting the manufacture and trade of small arms to manufacturers and dealers authorized by States and to submit the study as one of the background documents for the Conference.
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