SMALL ARMS MUST BE KEPT OUT OF HANDS OF CHILDREN; CONFERENCE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE TOLD

Preparatory Committee for the

United Nations Conference on

 The Illicit Trade in Small Arms

 And Light Weapons in All Its Aspects

36^th Meeting (AM)

SMALL ARMS MUST BE KEPT OUT OF HANDS OF CHILDREN;

CONFERENCE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE TOLD

The Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons this morning began the second and last week of its third session by continuing to finalize preparations for the Conference, which will take place 9 to 20 July in New York.  [For background information on the current session of the Committee, see Press Release DC/2756 of 16 March.]

Addressing the Committee first this morning, Ileen Cohn, representative of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict, said advocacy efforts for war-affected children were being hampered by the lack of reliable data.  The Special Representative was therefore developing a network of institutions to assist in research. 

She said that whatever the legitimate purpose of small arms, weapons-producing or trading States must ensure that their products did not go to those who abused children.  Such arms must also be kept out of the hands of children, while disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes must reflect the special needs of child ex-combatants.  States could not achieve those goals alone.  Only a broad-based coalition could effect them.

The Committee then heard comments from delegations on sections II, III and IV of the draft programme of action.  Section II deals with measures to combat the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.  Section III covers the implementation of those measures including cooperation and assistance, while section IV provides follow-up measures to the July Conference.

A number of speakers said the present draft was in good shape with balanced language.  While that was the result of extensive compromise and cooperation, there were still certain areas that needed fine-tuning.

Israel's representative said the sections under consideration today were reflections of the work done at the last two Preparatory Committee sessions.  He cautioned against repetition during the current meeting.  The United States representative said that the Conference should focus on practical, effective agreements that could be implemented with consensus.  In other areas, the Conference should not go beyond its mandate.  It should not address domestic gun control or civilian ownership of small arms.  The representative of the Russian Federation said specific proposals should be kept to a minimum.  The mandate of

General Assembly resolution 54/54 V -- which established the Conference -- must be strictly followed if success were to be possible.

Sweden's representative (on behalf of the European Union and associated States) suggested new paragraphs and amendments for section II.  Those recommendations addressed issues such as development frameworks; the firearms protocol; measures to prevent diversion of arms; the rights of States to re-export weapons; measures to prevent arms falling into arms of children; surplus of light weapons; disarmament, demobilization and reintegration; the role of civil society; confidence-building and exchange of information on exports and imports.

As other speakers addressed section II of the draft, a number of them proposed minor and major amendments.  There was a call for emphasizing that a universally recognized and user-friendly marking system was needed, that clearly indicated the country of origin and a numerical identification of small arms.  The Security Council should also be required to incorporate measures to stem proliferation of small arms in post-conflict situations.  Speakers also requested clearer language on brokering.

Changes were also proposed to address laws and administrative procedures, their implementation and enforcement; penalization of certain activities connected to illegal trafficking; the promotion of steps toward prohibition of trade and private ownership of light weapons; and the culture of non-violence.

Amendments were also proposed vis-à-vis strengthening export control procedures, dangerous stockpiling, political guidance for Interpol and the impact of small arms and weapons on children.

The representative of Japan said that some of the paragraphs did not make much sense, especially in making clear which actors would be responsible for the various actions to be taken, while Sri Lanka's representative proposed identifying the various actors in the illicit arms trade.

Addressing section III, Brazil's representative warned against approaches and language that might be interpreted as making development assistance contingent upon certain performance by States on small arms issues.  Efforts to address illicit light weapons should not impact current social and developmental processes.  States had sovereign rights to allocate their priorities. 

Canada's representative stressed that global, legally-binding instruments needed to be mentioned in other paragraphs.

Japan's representative proposed regrouping much of section III according to kinds of cooperation required to implement measures.  In that context he underscored differentiating bilateral, subregional and regional cooperation from the kind of cooperation that implied assistance to individual States.

As the Committee turned to section IV many speakers stressed that follow-up was essential with some of them underscoring how particularly critical it was to build a point of contact network at all levels of implementation.  Others called

for a follow-up mechanism that was dynamic and multilateral with Brazil advocating an ad-hoc committee of the General Assembly for that purpose.  

Colombia's representative said there should be follow-up in the area of data dissemination on the proliferation of small arms.  The establishment of that kind of machinery should comprise indicators of progress in the reduction of the illicit small arms and light weapons traffic.   

The representatives of Norway, Argentina, Mali, Australia, Nigeria, China, Mozambique, Kenya, Observer for Switzerland and Republic of Korea also made proposals to the three sections reviewed today.

The Committee will meet again at a date and time to be announced in the Journal.

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