PRESS CONFERENCE BY FUND FOR PEACE

PRESS CONFERENCE BY FUND FOR PEACE

The Fund for Peace, a United States-based non-profit organization, this afternoon called on the United Nations Small Arms Conference to adopt a legally binding regime that will regulate arms brokering operations in a uniform and coordinated manner.

Officials of the non-governmental organization told a Headquarters press conference that the proposal had been made to the current United Nations Small Arms Conference.  According to a letter sent to the President of the Conference, Camilo Reyes, together with a copy of a model convention, the threat posed by arms middlemen to international peace and security had long been underestimated or overlooked.

To date, only 11 countries had put in place controls over arms brokers’ activities, but such controls varied widely in scope, range and enforceability.

Speaking at the press conference were Pauline H. Baker, President of the Fund for Peace; Loretta Bondi, the Fund’s Advocacy Director; Jeremy P. Carver, a lawyer who wrote the model convention; and Richard Winfield, also a lawyer and Chairman of the Board of the Fund for Peace.

Ms. Bondi said, in response to questions, that the organization was convinced that a convention was the vehicle that all countries could use to deal with the problem of illicit arms trafficking.  The model convention offered standards that all countries could apply uniformly.

It was important that the Conference established the link between arms brokering and illicit activities in the arms trade, she said.

The Fund believed that the discussions so far did not seem to reflect the urgency that the problem presented.  “We are calling on all States to start early negotiations on an internationally binding instrument on arms brokering.”  The problem was urgent and widespread, she added. 

She hoped the follow-up mechanism that would be worked out during the Conference would take into account the urgency and the need for such a convention.  It would also represent the wishes of civil society organizations, as well as those of law enforcement across the world and victims of armed violence.

Mr. Winfield said the aim of the model text was regulation of the activities of brokers in small arms that were now being discussed within the international community.  Transparency and control of brokers' transactions were at the heart of the convention, he said.

Pauline Baker, President of the Fund for Peace, said the aim was to get nations to agree on a common framework for actions to prevent the proliferation of small arms.

Mr. Carver said arms transfers were carried out through intermediaries.  A distinction had to be drawn between those who trafficked illicitly and those who

did so quite legitimately and lawfully.  The key to unlocking that was to establish a process of differentiation between legal and legitimate arms and the illegitimate transactions.  That was the main purpose of the proposed convention.

The text sought to establish a system whereby arms brokers would be registered and given licenses.  There was nothing harmful or adverse economically or otherwise, in terms of being registered or obtaining licenses, he said.  The process was required to identify those who did not register or obtain licenses and who were operating unlawfully.  There was need for common rules to ensure that all States applied similar procedures.  States should make invalid any arms transfers carried out without license.  The process should be monitored closely and policed.

Ms. Bondi told a questioner she was confident that States would take the lead in advocating the adoption of such a convention.  There was now enough knowledge and recognition of the problem.  That had to be transferred into commitment.

Ms. Baker said, in response to a question, that the illicit arms trafficking was an issue that would not go away.  Non-governmental organizations would continue to agitate for action to be taken.

Mr. Carver said the idea of a brokers’ convention was cost-effective.  It was an effective means to make brokers' transactions more transparent.  The instrument, if adopted, could result in the significant curtailment of illicit trafficking in small arms.

Ms. Baker told a questioner that the United States had not been enforcing its laws on brokering, and her organization was pressing it to do so and to prosecute offenders.

Ms. Bondi told a correspondent that the draft programme of action lacked a legally binding commitment.  “One of the major omissions in the discussions and in the draft document itself was that there is no mention of human rights.  There was no place in the document in which human rights are mentioned.”

Earlier, the President of the Fund for Peace, Pauline Baker, said the model convention on brokering was the third part of a “trilogy” of new publications on the topic that the organization had released this year.

The first, “Casting the Net:  Implications of the U.S. Law on Arms Brokering”, was released in January.  The second, “Arms Trafficking:  Closing the Net”, was released last June.

The Fund’s proposal to the Small Arms Conference President noted that wider recognition and regulation of international arms brokers could only be accomplished through a global framework that included a specific timetable for action to bring arms traffickers and brokers into the fold of international law.

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