Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 10:12:27 -0700 From: Bullseye1911@EMAIL.MSN.COM (Bullseye1911) Subject: Fw: UN - SMALL ARMS MUST BE KEPT OUT OF HANDS OF CHILDREN To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
----- Original Message ----- Subject: UN - SMALL ARMS MUST BE KEPT OUT OF HANDS OF CHILDREN
>
> (Apologies for any double posts.)
>
> http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/dc2765.doc.htm
>
> Preparatory Committee for the United Nations
> Conference on The Illicit Trade in Small Arms And
> Light Weapons in All Its Aspects
>
> 36th Meeting (AM)
>
> DC/2765
> 26 March 2001
>
>
> 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 thesections 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 f
> 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--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.