PRESS CONFERENCE BY UN CHILDREN’S FUND

At a Headquarters press conference Monday morning, sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), a coalition of civil society groups called on international governments to increase efforts to curb the trade in small arms. Representatives of the International Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and Human Rights Watch, among others, stressed the integral importance of including civil society's views on that issue in deliberations of the Preparatory Committee on the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade of Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.  The Preparatory Committee began its session today and will run through 19 January.

Attending the press conference were:  Wendy Cukier, President of Canada's Coalition for Gun Control; Commany Wesseh, Director of the Centre for Liberia's Democratic Empowerment; Myrna Pena, Director of the Disarmament and Security Programme of the World Conference on Religion and Peace; and Joost Hiltermann, Exectutive Director of the Arms Division of the Human Rights Watch.  Ms. Cukier said it was important that world leaders recognize the reality that while small arms might not be the outright cause of violence, they did indeed sustain it by increasing the lethality of conflicts.  She added that while all the panelists might express views specific to the concerns of their various organizations, they would all reinforce the importance of including civil society in the preparatory process.  "Not just because it's right", she said "but because it's the only way to solve this problem".

In a brief opening statement, Lieke van de Wiel, UNICEF's Assistant Programme Officer of Emergency Programmes, told correspondents the widespread proliferation of small arms fostered a culture of violence.  While the majority of casualties in conflicts fuelled by illicit small arms and light weapons were children, UNICEF saw the issue as far-reaching, with security, humanitarian, developmental and human rights dimensions.  With that in mind, the international community should approach the issue accordingly, she said.

Ms. Cukier went on to say it would also be critically important for the Conference to address the fact that small arms, unlike conventional weapons or landmines, originated from a wide range of sources.  Further, virtually all illegal small arms could have been considered "legal" at one time or another, in the possession of police forces of State governments.  Indeed, she said, civilians worldwide were probably in possession of as many small arms as governments and police forces.  Therefore, a strategy must be developed that controlled the movement of legal small arms in order to prevent diversion to illegal markets.  "Gunrunners", she said, "don't differentiate between conflict zones and inner-city gangs".

Mr. Wesseh said that his organization, based in Liberia, was committed to exploring the major problem of how small arms undermined democracy and good governance, particularly in and among the members of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).  Small and light arms had been the weapons of choice in the protracted conflicts that had plagued that subregion for so many years.  That was particularly true for the countries at the epicentre of the conflicts, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire, in which rebel gangs

used small arms to intimidate civilians or spark massive population displacements.

Taking all that into account, national and regional coalitions had been developed, jointly with the Centre, to address the issue of the devastating consequences of the proliferation of small arms, Mr. Wessa continued.  Those same issues had drawn the attention of regional governments and ECOWAS had declared its own moratorium on small arms.  There was also a growing recognition among the leadership of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) that civil society groups must be actively involved in developing strategies for curbing the trade in illicit weapons.

Mr. Wessa acknowledged, however, that directly confronting the weapons trade could be dangerous.  Many governments, he said, had relied on small arms to carry out internal repression or to support armed rebellions.  Addressing such issues openly could lead to serious consequences, ranging from basic threats and intimidation to murder.  A correspondent asked if Mr. Wessa had had any personal experience in that regard.  Mr. Wessa said that, as a direct result of organizing meetings on the issue of small arms in his home country, he and members of his staff had been physically assaulted and were nearly killed.    

Ms. Pena then said that the proliferation or misuse of small arms was a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that touched all corners of the world and affected many different cultures.  It was important to acknowledge, then, that religion was a powerful force for peace-building and disarmament.  Religious communities could also provide the infrastructure to reach every town and village.  Effectively tackling such a complex issue would also require coordination across a wide range of religious organizations and disciplines. Only far-reaching behavioural change -- motivating people to participate within their respective communities and to cooperate with wider global initiatives -- could reduce and reverse the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

The world religious community could not effect such broad changes alone, Ms. Pena continued.  She, therefore, called on governments to control the global illicit arms trade in several ways, including through better regulation of the legal arms trade, and national legislation to improve the supervision of arms production.  She hoped that during the preparatory process, governments would show real commitment.

Mr. Hiltermann said that his organization had taken a keen interest in the human rights aspects of the trade in illicit arms.  In conflict zone after conflict zone, Human Rights Watch had documented the appalling humanitarian impact of the unregulated flow of conventional weapons.  It had become clear that civilians, particularly in the many war-torn regions of Africa, bore the brunt of the misuse of small arms and light weapons, supplied by unscrupulous brokers and dealers, as well as governments.

He applauded United Nations efforts to tackle the unregulated flow of small arms.  While the human rights imperative was blatantly clear, he said it was extremely unlikely that the July Conference would accomplish anything more than the most minimal objectives, if anything at all, since the unwritten rule at those sorts of negotiations was the "rule of the lowest common denominator". 

States that did not want the Conference to succeed could play every procedural trick to great effect.

In that regard, there was no need to look any further than the five permanent members of the Security Council, he continued.  Those States also just happened to be the main arms providers in the world today.  Two of those States, the Russian Federation and China, were completely opposed to the process.  That position should not surprise anyone, he added, Russian arms were flooding conflict zones in Africa and Central Asia, and China scrupulously made sure to supply human rights abusers on both sides of conflicts in those regions.  Those States held the position that it was imperative to limit the scope of the Conference to only the illicit trade in small arms.

The other three permanent members -- the United Kingdom, France and the United States -- were lukewarm towards the process.  In fact, no one was certain where the United States stood.  "Perhaps the United States is just waiting for Russia and China to torpedo the process for it", he said.  While acknowledging that there were governments committed to a positive outcome for the Conference, he said that it was imperative for non-governmental organizations to have access to the meetings.  That issue should be at the top of the agenda for the Preparatory Committee.     

At the end of July his organization would take a close look to see if States were, in fact, addressing the issue -- whether or not the emperor was fully dressed, he continued.  "We will give the United Nations a fair shot at this, but if we are not satisfied with the results, we reserve the option to step outside the United Nations process and pursue an alternative course of action to better protect the human rights of all."

Asked what other options he would pursue, Mr. Hiltermann said it was premature to say yet, but the Ottawa landmine process was something that everyone had in mind.  In that process, non-governmental organizations and some governments recognized that the process under the Convention on Conventional Weapons wasn't working, and decided to step outside the United Nations in order to accomplish the maximum aims, and thereby promote international human rights. He was not saying that the process would be the same, but he wanted to be clear that this was not "the only game in town".

Asked to explain why the Security Council's efforts to control weapons did not keep pace with its efforts to control diamonds, Mr. Hiltermann said that was part of an effort on the part of governments to deflect attention from the real issues.  The attempt to go after diamonds and other commodities that were being used to pay for arms was interesting, but it failed to address the key issue.  It was possible to cut off the unregulated flow of arms to areas of armed conflict, and to human rights abusers in particular.  However, there was a great reluctance on the part of governments to do that, because their own interests were at stake.

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