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UN Conference on Small Arms Achieves Mixed Results - UN Security Council - Global Policy Forum UN Conference on Small Arms
World Policy Institute
Achieves Mixed Results
August 17, 2001The United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons In All Its Aspects was held in New York from July 9th through 21st. Although the final document was long on rhetoric and short on concrete commitments, the conference as a whole generated two weeks of unprecedented international attention for the small arms problem on the part of governments and non-governmental organizations, as well as in the print and electronic media. This consciousness-raising aspect of the conference may prove to be its most important legacy- IF the increased interest in the issue can be channeled toward the implementation of specific reforms aimed at restraining global gun trafficking.
The big news of week one of the conference was the obstructionist position taken by Bush administration Undersecretary of State for International Security and Arms Control John Bolton. In remarks that might as well have been drafted by the National Rifle Association, Bolton gave a misguided "fundamentalist" reading of the Second Amendment to the U.S. constitution that wrongly suggested that it entails an unfettered individual right to bear arms. Even if one were to accept Bolton's distorted view of the U.S. constitution, it's not clear what it has to do with the primary purpose of the UN gathering, which was to designed to promote cooperative international measures aimed at keeping military-style weapons out of the hands of criminals, death squads, drug traffickers, and violent paramilitary organizations. But Bolton proceeded to enunciate a "just say no" approach to small arms controls, asserting that the Bush administration would not support negotiations leading to binding legal restrictions on the small arms trade, nor would it endorse restrictions on sales to non-governmental paramilitary groups. He also underscored the fact that the administration would not support initiatives designed to limit the access of civilians to military-style firearms. Last but not least, he expressed opposition to a mandatory review conference to monitor progress towards the goal of reining in the small arms trade.
The Bush position was loudly applauded by the gun lobby - most ironically in the form of an op-ed piece in the Washington Times by Oliver North, whose main claim to fame is the illicit gun-running operation to Iran and the Nicaraguan contras that he spearheaded during his tenure in the Reagan administration. The Bush approach was also quietly welcomed by governments like Russia and China that had their own reasons for wanting to resist strong controls on the small arms trade, but were now free to let the United States take the brunt of the criticism for blocking progress. As might have been expected, the international press and many U.S. editorial pages were harshly critical of the Bush administration's perspective, which was quickly lumped together with its stands against the Kyoto Treaty on global warming, the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, and a new verification protocol for the Biological Weapons Convention as further evidence of a dangerous unilateralist tendency within the Bush foreign policy team.
Given the bombshell dropped by the U.S. delegation in week one, the second week of the conference became a bit of a salvage operation. After a hectic all-night negotiating session that ran into the morning of Saturday, July 21st, the conference finally came out with a compromise program of action. Under pressure from the U.S. delegation, the final document omitted any reference to controlling civilian access to military-style firearms or restricting small arms sales to non-state actors (rebels and paramilitary groups), a provision which had been strongly supported by African delegations to the conference.
The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) pointed out a number of other shortcomings in the program of action, such as the following: 1) No commitment to negotiate international treaties regulating arms brokers or requiring the marking and tracing of weapons; 2) No reference to limiting small arms sales to human rights abusers; and 3) A lack of commitment to greater transparency (reporting and information sharing) on the trade in small arms and light weapons. On the positive side of the ledger, IANSA noted that the conference final document included strong statements on the impact of small arms on economic development, health, and humanitarian issues, as well as a commitment to implement more effective surplus weapons destruction programs in countries recovering from war.
THE GOOD NEWS:
The bottom line on the July conference is that despite resistance by the United States and other key governments and pressure from the gun lobby, in the end the governments of the world did acknowledge the serious dangers posed by the proliferation of small arms and pledged to seek tighter regulations and closer cooperation to rein in this deadly trade. Backing up this general promise to take action with specific, workable reforms will require persistent and creative follow-up by non-governmental organizations and sympathetic governments.The greatest spur to action continues to be the sheer scope of the small arms problem. Small arms are the weapons of choice in the majority of the world's conflicts, and are responsible for over 500,000 deaths per year. Small arms facilitate ethnic cleansing, genocide, and mass displacement of civilian populations. They are a central factor in criminal violence, domestic abuse, and suicides. The ready availability of small arms and light weapons undermines public health, economic development, and the rule of law. Armed groups - both government military forces and paramilitary militias - are heavily involved in environmental destruction caused by the plunder of diamonds, coltan, timber, and other natural resources to fuel ongoing conflicts. Thankfully, there is an invaluable new resource available which documents these wide-ranging effects and profiles the workings of the small arms trade itself: Small Arms Survey 2001: Profiling the Problem (Oxford University Press, 2001), produced by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, www.smallarmssurvey.org
Dealing with such a complex, deeply-rooted problem will obviously require the broadest possible international network. There were a number of positive developments on this front during the July conference. One of the most inspiring moments came on the morning of July 16th, when representatives of 42 non-governmental organizations addressed the delegates to the conference. Despite the presence of 12 pro-gun groups on the speakers roster, the message regarding the need for controls on the small arms trade came through loud and clear, and the delegates actually interrupted several presentations with applause, a response that is virtually unheard of in the normally stodgy confines of the United Nations. The remarks of Mary Leigh Blek of the Million Mom March, a gun control advocacy group, were particularly warmly received. The involvement of the Million Mom March, New Yorkers for Gun Control, and other gun control advocates in the UN conference marked an important potential step forward in broadening the base of support for small arms controls. Similarly, the formation of the Humanitarian Coalition on Small Arms, with participation from Oxfam, Amnesty International, Norwegian Church Aid, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, and the Arias Foundation, bodes well for building a more powerful international constituency for action on small arms and light weapons. Last but certainly not least, the work of the IANSA Women's Caucus, which organized an inspiring and informative breakfast meeting among other activities during the conference, will continue to be a tremendous asset in building a stronger movement.
Activities on the small arms issue have continued at a brisk pace in the wake of the conference. On August 2nd, there was an extended discussion of how to proceed on the small arms issue in the UN Security Council. Loretta Bondi of the Fund for Peace reports that her organization is following up on expressions of interest by numerous governments in her organization's model convention for the regulation of arms brokers. And the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Physicians for Social Responsibility are taking the lead in organizing a major international conference, "Aiming for Prevention: International Medical Conference on Small Arms, Gun Violence, and Injury" to be held in Helsinki, Finland from September 28th through the 30th. Details on the conference are available at www.ippnw.org/Helsinki.html For more details on the small arms conference and follow-up work, consult the web site of the International Action Network on Small Arms at www.iansa.org
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