PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR CONFERENCE ON ILLICIT TRADE IN SMALL ARMS TO TAKE PLACE AT HEADQUARTERS 8 – 19 JANUARY

Background Release

PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR CONFERENCE ON ILLICIT TRADE IN SMALL ARMS

TO TAKE PLACE AT HEADQUARTERS 8 – 19 JANUARY

When the Preparatory Committee for the upcoming United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects meets for the second time from 8 to 19 January at United Nations Headquarters in New York, it is expected to examine further the delicate question of balancing the sovereign right of States to safeguard their national security with the pressing need to regulate the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

Called a "global problem without a passport" by the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, the illicit small arms trade will be the focus of an international Conference to be held in New York from 9 to 20 July.  The disarmament Conference -- the first since 1987 -- is considered to be a milestone in the Organization's history.  Following intensified debate on the subject during the fifty-fourth session of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), the General Assembly decided in December 1999 to convene the Conference and establish the Preparatory Committee.  The Committee was asked to recommend to the Conference draft final documents that might include a programme of action and a political declaration, rules of procedure and modalities for the attendance of civil society groups.

Following the opening of the session Monday afternoon and the completion of the Bureau, the Preparatory Committee will proceed to exchanges of views on substantive and procedural issues.  Working groups will likely be established to consider the formulation of the following:  measures to prevent, combat and eliminate the illicit manufacture, acquisition, stockpiling and transfer of small arms and light weapons; measures related to stockpile management, safe storage and destruction of illicit surplus small arms and light weapons; and measures related to transparency, confidence-building and exchange of information.

Also under consideration will be measures to prevent diversion from legal to illegal trades, including brokering-related activities, measures related to marking, record-keeping and tracing of small arms and light weapons; measures related to civilian possession of those arms; and possible actions concerning post-conflict situations, including weapons collection and disposal, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes.  No formal general debate is scheduled.

A working paper by the Conference Chairman, Carlos Dos Santos (Mozambique), will serve as the basis of a discussion on the Conference's objectives:  to strengthen or develop norms at the global, regional and national

levels that would reinforce and further coordinate efforts to prevent and combat the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons; to develop agreed international measures to prevent and combat illicit trafficking in and manufacturing of those weapons and to reduce excessive and destabilizing accumulations and transfers worldwide.  The Chairman calls for particular emphasis on conflict regions and areas where serious problems of proliferation have to be addressed urgently.  The Conference should seek to mobilize the political will of the international community and promote States' responsibility with a view to preventing the illicit export, import, transit and retransfer of small arms and light weapons.

Participants of the First Preparatory Committee session, held in New York from 28 February to 3 March 2000, determined the dates and venue of the second and third Committee sessions, with the third to be held in New York from 19 to 30 March.  A decision was deferred, however, on the Conference dates and venue, which was later resolved by the fifty-fifth General Assembly in December.  Action is pending on the inclusion of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  Some delegations had expressed concern that the participation of NGOs -- many of which approach the small arms debate from perspectives that encompass human rights and social and economic development issues rather than from a purely disarmament perspective -- could over-politicize the debate and risk its success.  Also pending under the draft rules of procedure is a recommendation about whether the Conference will adopt its decisions by consensus or vote.

During the Committee's general debate last February-March, widespread agreement emerged on the need for the Conference to formulate practical solutions that were comprehensive and achievable.   Delegates emphasized the importance of examining the cycles of supply and demand and of developing agreed norms for security and the safe management of official stockpiles.  Disagreement persisted on the scope of the Conference, however, centring on whether discussions should be limited to the illicit arms trade and related problems or whether they should include also the issue of legal trade.  It is estimated that more than half of the legal weapons sales become illegal over time.  Opponents of addressing the link with legal trade argue that such a debate would exceed the Conference's mandate and encroach on the right to self-defence. 

Others urged that the Conference strike a balance between a pure disarmament approach based on arms control and reductions and a contextual one that was sensitive to priority areas.  The wanton mass destruction and suffering caused by small arms and light weapons had compelled the representative of Sierra Leone to call for an outright ban on their sale to countries sharing contiguous borders with conflict areas.  Other calls were made for an international action plan establishing regional and international norms, with provisions on export controls, brokering, marking, transparency and information exchange, as well as on the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants.  An integrated approach would address the activities of buyers, sellers, brokers and governments, they said.  Also emphasized was the need for supplier nations to exercise utmost restraint in the field of small arms sales and implement legislation to monitor the activities of arms brokers.

The issue 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 small

arms 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 was 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 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: 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 July 1998 Inter-American Conventional 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.

Presently, negotiations are under way in Vienna on a legally binding Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, to supplement the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.  Once concluded, the draft Protocol will provide an international law enforcement mechanism for crime prevention and the prosecution of traffickers.  The Protocol may include articles establishing internationally recognized standards and provisions regarding marking, registration and traceability of firearms. 

Other highlights from 2000 include the Flame of Peace lit in Agadez, Niger on 25 September, which destroyed some 1,300 guns, symbolizing the formal end of the armed rebellion and the commitment of Niger to reconciliation and peace.  In November, representatives of 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries met in Brazil to seek a common regional approach to the issue of illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons in preparation for the international small arms

Conference.  The outcome was the so-called "Brasilia Declaration", which called for the Conference to adopt a political declaration and a global programme of action while taking into account the right to self-defence and the uniqueness of States.

Also in November, the report of the Secretary-General on methods of destruction of small arms, light weapons, ammunition and explosives (document S/2000/1092) was issued.  Requested by the Security Council and designed as a reference manual to assist Member States in the disposal of weapons voluntarily surrendered by civilians or retrieved from former combatants, the work is a practical tool for addressing what the Secretary-General has called "one of the gravest threats to international peace and security in the new millennium".  "In a world awash with small arms", he says, "that will be no small achievement". 

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