PRESS BRIEFING ON SMALL ARMS STUDY

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON SMALL ARMS STUDY

Peggy Mason of Canada, the Chairperson of the Group of Governmental Experts appointed by the Secretary-General to carry out a study on the feasibility of restricting the manufacture and trade of small arms and light weapons, briefed correspondents this afternoon at Headquarters on the Group’s aims. The 20-member Group is holding the first of three sessions from 15 to 19 May at Headquarters.

Ms. Mason, who is Adviser on Small Arms and Light Weapons at Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, said she hoped the practical approaches identified in the study, which would be submitted as a background paper for the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in 2001, would be incorporated into the Conference’s programme of action. She expected the study to be an evaluation of options, as well as an assessment of those options.

The study was intended to assist in preventing illicit trafficking and illicit circulation of small arms and light weapons, Ms. Mason said, adding that the General Assembly had also mandated that the study cover the brokering activities, particularly illicit activities, relating to small arms and light weapons, including transportation agents and financial transactions. The Group is scheduled to hold another two sessions in New York, from 10 to 14 July 2000, and from 12 to 16 February 2001.

Ms. Mason said she was encouraged by the level of technical expertise in the Group, as well as their determination to examine practical ways to address some of the problems, such as the brokering activities in illicit trade.

Asked for examples of the practical measures under discussion, Ms. Mason said, initially the Group was taking a detailed look at various national efforts, as seen through national legislation, national codes of conduct and national administrative policies where countries had made an attempt to identify brokering activities and regulate them in some way. While there was not a lot of national legislation, there were several and the Group had so far looked at seven or eight countries. The countries are able to provide a practical focus, as well as information on the problems they have encountered with their own legislation and administrative practices.

A correspondent, citing the chemical weapons convention precedent of consulting chemical manufacturers, asked if the Group was talking with weapons manufacturers in various countries. Ms. Mason replied that the issue of a dialogue had been raised in the Group, but it had not yet been determined how they might engage in that kind of dialogue. However, some members of the Group had active contact with manufacturers.

* *** *