SMALL ARMS PREPARATORY COMMITTEE DECIDES THAT JULY CONFERENCE SHOULD BE HELD AT MINISTERIAL LEVEL

Preparatory Committee for the

United Nations Conference on

 the Illicit Trade in Small Arms

 and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects

37^th Meeting (PM)

SMALL ARMS PREPARATORY COMMITTEE DECIDES THAT JULY CONFERENCE

SHOULD BE HELD AT MINISTERIAL LEVEL

The Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects continued its preparations for the Conference this afternoon by adopting a draft decision on the rules of procedure of the Conference and another on the level of participation at the Conference.

By the terms of one of the draft decisions that was adopted without a

vote, the Committee recommended that the Conference, which will be held from 9 to 20 July at United Nations Headquarters, should be held at ministerial level.

The representative of the United States said that whether ministers from various countries would be able to attend the Conference depended on how the work went forward between now and July.

By the terms of the other decision on the draft rules of procedure, the Committee recommended that draft rule 64 on the modalities of attendance of non-governmental organizations at the meeting should be included in the Conference rules of procedure.

The representative of the United Kingdom informed the Committee that her country was developing a long-term strategy to support programmes that built on the Conference’s outcomes.  That included the allocation of significant resources to a Weapons Collection and Management and Destruction Programme aimed at providing immediate support to measures that would result in a reduction of the number of uncontrolled weapons in circulation.

In that context, she drew attention to a proposal for an International Arms Surrender Fund that had been put forward by her country’s Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook.  Such a fund could operate under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), tailor its operations to fit the circumstances of different countries and have financing available on a semi-permanent basis.  That would allow timely action as problems arose.  She proposed launching that fund immediately after the Conference.

She stressed that having the fund within the UNDP, within the development framework would ensure that efforts would be undertaken in conjunction with actions that addressed the root causes of the demand for small arms.  It could

also provide developmental incentives for the surrender of weapons at critical junctures in UNDP’s peace-building programmes.

Iran’s representative said that while one of the most important aspects of the Conference was its structure, questions concerning that issue had not been fully addressed.  He requested that the issue of arrangements for the Conference, as well as its subsidiary bodies, should be dealt with during the current session.

The Chairman, Carlos Dos Santos (Mozambique), said that he recognized the importance of those issues raised by Iran, but questions regarding the presidency of the Conference had held up progress.  There was, however, a framework for decisions.  If there was no proposal by tomorrow, proposals could still be decided by consensus well before the Conference.

The Conference will be the first major international meeting on the issue.  The Committee was established at the General Assembly’s fifty-fourth session to recommend draft final documents for the Conference and decide certain procedural issues.  Earlier preparatory sessions were held in early February 2000 and January 2001.  For this final session, the Committee began discussions with a revised Chairman’s working paper on the draft programme of action.

The Committee will meet again tomorrow at a time to be announced.

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