7442nd Security Council meeting on Small Arms - part 1

Human Cost of Illicit Flow of Small Arms, Light Weapons Stressed in Security Council Debate
7442nd Meeting (AM)

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Security Council
• Video Length: 02:11:15
• Production Date: 13 May 2015
• Asset Language: Arabic; Chinese; English; French; Russian; Spanish
• Personal Subject: BAN KI-MOON
• Corporate Name: OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS - OHCHR
• Subject Topical: ARMS TRADE TREATY; CONFLICT SITUATION; GIRLS; SMALL ARMS; WOMEN
• MAMS Id: 1359015
• Parent Id: 1356500

Description

Speakers Call for Effective Management of Deadly Materiel
Underscoring the human suffering caused by the widespread availability of small arms and light weapons in conflict zones at an all-day open debate in the Security Council today, speakers called for the urgent management of such deadly materiel through national action, implementation of treaties and strengthened international cooperation.

“Small arms do not only make easy the taking and maiming of lives, but also kill economies and the social bonds on which every kind of collective institution and progress rely,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said following Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s opening remarks. Denial of education and health, criminality, illicit plundering of natural resources, decreased trade and investment, violence against women and girls, gang violence and the collapse of the rule of law were facilitated by widespread access to the weapons.

“These are the weapons of the easy kill: the most portable, most easily accessible, most casual instruments of death — even a small child can, with its tiny muscles, vanquish a life,” he said, while noting that it was usually the most vulnerable, including children, that were killed. The worst human cruelty was also assisted by the availability of arms. In that way, arms profiteering was the partner of war crimes.

Mr. Ban, introducing his latest report on the issue (document S/2015/289), said that the widespread availability of weapons was a major factor in the over 250 conflicts of the past decade, leading to more than 50,000 deaths each year and record levels of displacement. “Deny access to illegal weapons and ammunition, and you deny criminals, armed groups and extremists a central means to perpetrate violence intimidation and harm,” he stated.

Among the complex causes of conflict, weapons could be most clearly addressed, he noted. “Guns can be licensed, marked or confiscated; ammunition can be tracked, removed or destroyed; and depots can be guarded, cleared or secured,” he said.

Both Mr. Ban and Mr. al Hussein pointed to the hope for better management of small arms provided by the coming into force of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). They called for its universal accession and genuine implementation. In addition, they pointed to a need for United Nations operations to incorporate assistance for arms management into their activities.

Following their statements, the president of the Côte d’Ivoire chapter of the West Africa Action Network on Small Arms, Karamoko Diakité, recounted the terror he experienced after an electoral dispute led to the anarchic distribution of small arms and ammunition by some political and district leaders, after those weapons had entered his country in violation of the arms embargo. Thousands were killed and the total cost was beyond estimation.

“We were terrorized for days, hunted like animals, without food, without water, without receiving help, constantly living in fear of being killed,” he said. Groups of young, lawless offenders in possession of arms would not hesitate to take a life or to indulge in all forms of abuse on a terrorized and paralysed population, particularly on women and girls.

Arms had also poured into the region after the fall of Muammar Qadhafi in Libya and were feeding terrorist movements in Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, he said. Advocating mechanisms to stem the flow of such weapons, he, too, urged accession to the ATT.

After Mr. Diakité’s presentation, some 60 speakers took the floor, with most emphasizing the devastating impact of small arms and light weapons on populations and their socioeconomic condition in conflict areas in their regions and around the world. Most called for increased international cooperation to stem the problem, with many urging implementation of the ATT and of management mechanisms that supported registry and monitoring measures.

Some speakers stressed the importance of differentiating between legitimate and illicit trade in weapons. The representative of the United States stressed, in that context, that nations had the right to defend themselves and their citizens and that the lawful and appropriate manufacture and purchase of small arms must be respected. However, he stressed, such arms should never be allowed to be diverted.

Others insisted on the need to completely stop the flow of arms to non-State actors, with some speaking about the effects on Syria, and regretting that this issue was not included in a resolution that failed to come out of negotiations in time for the meeting. Venezuela’s representative stated: “The transfer of conventional weapons to non-State actors must end, whether they were so-called democratic opposition groups or militias. The Council must adopt a decisive resolution that clearly prohibited the transfer of arms and ammunition to all such groups. We cannot have a two-faced approach to this,” he said.

The representative of the Russian Federation said that the proposed resolution had ignored a variety of his country’s suggestions. It also contained language that infringed on the sovereignty of States by calling for United Nations missions to have arms control responsibilities, while, he stressed, the main obligation for controlling the proliferation of small arms and light weapons fell on States.

The representative of Lithuania, which had proposed the new resolution, said it had focused on practical steps to prevent illicit transfers, making significant additions to the previous resolution 2117 (2013). She called on all delegations to build on the evolving consensus to finalize what she called an important text.

“We can make a difference in the lives of those women, those widows, those girls and boys, those elderly and those displaced that often have no other recourse, no other defences than the resolve and determination of the international community to act on their behalf,” she said. “We should. And we must.”

Also speaking today were the representatives of China, Malaysia, Jordan, Chad, Nigeria, New Zealand, France, Spain, United Kingdom, Angola, Chile, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Colombia, Iraq, Romania, Brazil, Slovenia, Mexico, Sweden, Botswana, Pakistan, Japan, Kazakhstan, Belgium, South Africa, Mozambique, Israel, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, India, Indonesia, Algeria, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Paraguay, Republic of Korea, Finland, Croatia, Moldova, Australia, Morocco, Netherlands, Armenia, Ukraine, Argentina, Egypt, Serbia, Thailand, Montenegro, Benin, Ireland and Turkey.

The Permanent Observer of the African Union and the Head of the Delegation of the European Union also spoke.

The representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine took the floor for a second time.

The meeting began at 10:07 a.m. and ended at 4:55 p.m.