EPGPCpg1

Controlling Licit Trade Is Vital
To Eradicating Illicit Trade
In Small Arms And Light Weapons

Statement of HE Mr. Michel Rocard,
Former Prime Minister of France and
Co-chair, Eminent Persons Group, (EPG)

On behalf of the Co-chairs of the Eminent Persons Group

Before the Second Meeting of the Preparatory Committee for
the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade
In Small Arms And Light Weapons In All Its Aspects
Conference Room 2, UN Headquarters, New York, January 18th, 2001

Thank you for affording me opportunity to address you on the need to control the licit trade in small arms as an integral part of the Program for Action for the 2001 UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms And Light Weapons In All Its Aspects. I delight in the presence of Mitsuro Donowaki (Japan), Peggy Mason (Canada) and Sola Ogunbanwo (Nigeria), three distinguished members of the Eminent Persons Group.

Mr. Chairman:

Half of licitly traded SALW end up supplying illicit traffic. The weight of empirical evidence on trafficking shows that the spread and abuse of small arms results primarily from the lack of state regulation and transparency. Consequently, combating illicit trafficking is inseparably linked to controlling licit trade. Secretary-General Kofi Annan states in the Millennium Report, “these weapons must be brought under the control of the State, with the State being made accountable for their transfer.” Efforts to restrict the scope of the 2001 Conference to illicit transfers are attempts to avoid State responsibility.

The question of state responsibility goes to the heart of the debate on controlling international transfers of small arms, since it necessitates the establishment of consistent mechanisms for the effective state regulation of the legal trade in those weapons and for increased transparency in such arms transfers. In order to restrict and properly regulate SALW transfers sufficient information about the manufacture, trade and transit of such arms should be made available to national decision-makers and to the international community through appropriate state mechanisms.

Small arms production and transfer must be transparent. Given the reality of the global small arms trade this puts a major burden of responsibility on manufacturing States. At the same time, small supplier States need not worry about regulatory control efforts. Nor do States need worry about their sovereign right to self-defense. And certainly, no one would deny the right to produce weapons for legitimate needs. To the contrary.

Nonetheless, one must ask, first, wouldn’t a reduction in the flow of weapons, clandestinely imported into their territories help States alleviate legitimate security concerns? And secondly, in making transparent their own production and needs, wouldn’t States help the international community make a clearer distinction between that which is licit and that, which is not? Would this not be to States’s own benefit?

The Secretary-General’s Report on illicit traffic in small arms (A/55/323) reveals that a number of member States favor a broad scope and strong mandate for the Conference. Mr. Annan notes, “throughout the consultations and in numerous other forums, there have been calls for greater transparency with respect to small arms transfers, holdings and production, as well as weapons confiscation, collection and destruction.” There is also, the Secretary-General notes, broad convergence of views in favor of enhanced information-gathering and –sharing by means of some form of regional or global register, enhanced national legislation and enforcement as well as common standards and an international code of conduct with respect to weapons-marking, record-keeping and tracing. Building on the Franco-Swiss initiative (A/CONF.192/PC/7), early agreement on these three issues will prove a welcome portent of things to come.

The Eminent Persons Group lauds the efforts of the UN Secretary-General in leading global efforts by calling for a global small arms nonproliferation regime. NGOs must remain in the forefront of the global effort as drum majors in pursuit of Mr. Annan’s vision for a safer world. Progress depends on building a Global Coalition between the non-governmental and governmental levels of action, representing recipient and supplier States alike.

Continued