UN WORKSHOP FOR LATIN AMERICAN, CARIBBEAN NATIONS SEEKS

WIDER COMPLIANCE WITH ARMS PACT REPORTING PROCEDURES

LIMA, 26 November (Department for Disarmament Affairs) -- The United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs is holding a regional workshop to enhance familiarity and encourage greater participation by member States of Latin America and the Caribbean in two global arms transparency instruments of the United Nations:  the Register of Conventional Arms, and the standardized instrument for reporting military expenditures.

The workshop, entitled  “Transparency in Armaments”, takes place from 26 to 28 November 2002, in Lima at the Conference Centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru.  It is being organized by the United Nations in collaboration with the Governments of Peru, Canada, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.

The Register of Conventional Arms has been in operation since 1992 and, so far, 162 governments have reported one or more times their export and import of major conventional arms.  The instrument for reporting military expenditures has been in existence since 1981 and, so far, 102 governments have reported their defence spending to this instrument.

Both these reporting instruments have recorded sharp increases in the level of participation in the past two years.  However, more progress is needed in order to move closer to the goal of universal participation and to achieve a high level of reporting on a regular basis.

This regional workshop forms part of a series of workshops being organized in different regions or subregions of the world.  Two workshops have already been completed, one for West Africa, held in Accra (Ghana) in March this year, and the other for southern Africa, held in Windhoek (Namibia) in June this year.

A subregional workshop for South-East Asia is expected to be held in Indonesia in February 2003.  The Department of Disarmament Affairs and sponsoring governments are exploring the prospects of holding subregional workshops on arms transparency in other parts of Africa and Asia.

The mandate for the workshop series is derived from General Assembly resolution A/55/33 U, entitled “Transparency in Armaments”, which endorsed the report of the 2000 Group of Governmental Experts, appointed by the Secretary-General.  The report recommended the holding of workshops to promote the Register of Conventional Arms.

The mandate is also derived form General Assembly resolution A/56/14, entitled “Reporting of Military Expenditures”, which called for symposia and training seminars to facilitate wider participation by Member States in the military expenditures reporting instrument.

Note:  For further information, contact:  Nazir Kamal, Political Affairs Officer, Conventional Arms Branch, Department for Disarmament Affairs,

tel: (212) 963-6195.

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