EXPERT GROUP ON ILLICIT SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS BROKERING WILL CONSIDER

ENHANCING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, WHEN WORK BEGINS NEXT WEEK IN GENEVA

NEW YORK, 24 November (Department for Disarmament Affairs) -- The United Nations Group of Governmental Experts to consider further steps to enhance international cooperation in preventing, combating and eradicating illicit brokering in small arms and light weapons will hold its first session in Geneva from 27 November to 1 December 2006.  The Group of Experts, which was established by General Assembly resolution 60/81 of 8 December 2005, will be chaired by Mr. Daniël Prins of the Netherlands.

Illicit brokering is considered to be one of the major obstacles to international efforts to combat the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons and to ensure full implementation of United Nations arms embargoes.  Illicit brokers need not to be physically close to the shipments they facilitate; they tend to operate from anywhere in the world.  Currently, most countries lack adequate legislation to regulate the activities of brokers dealing in small arms and light weapons.  The Group of Governmental Experts is thus expected to study the problem and make recommendations that might help Governments to put in place appropriate national regulations and to improve international cooperation to better control such brokering activities.

The Group is composed of 25 experts from the following countries:   Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Finland, France, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Romania, Senegal, South Africa, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America.

The Group will meet again from 19 to 23 March and from 4 to 8 June 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and is expected to submit its report to the General Assembly at its sixty-second session in 2007.

For further information, please contact António E. Évora, Secretary of the Group of Governmental Experts, Department for Disarmament Affairs, e-mail:  evora@un.org.

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