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UN / SMALL ARMS
STORY: UN / SMALL ARMS
TRT: 03:45
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 DECEMBER 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
15 DECEMBER 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“The biennial consideration of “small arms” began more than fifteen years ago with a 2007 presidential statement. Since then, the Council has continued to recognize that the illicit transfer, destabilized accumulation and misuse of small arms and light weapons constitute a threat to international peace and security. Small arms and light weapons are the weapons of choice in initiating, sustaining and exacerbating conflict, armed violence, terrorism and other forms of organized crime.”
4. Wide shot, Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“Their misuse facilitates human rights violations and gender based violence. According to the latest figure, in 2021 alone 260,000 people were killed by small arms amounting to 45 percent of all violent deaths. This is more than 700 people a day, or one person dying from small arms every two minutes.”
6. Wide shot, Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“Considerable efforts have been undertaken at the global, regional, subregional and national levels in support of small arms and light weapons control. These include work in the framework of the Programme of Action on small arms and light weapons and its International Tracing Instrument, the Firearms Protocol to the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, and the Arms Trade Treaty.”
8. Wide shot, Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Cécile Aptel, Deputy Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research:
“Since 2021, an increase in conflict related deaths has contributed to a worrying upward trend. While small arms and light weapons were the second most prevalent cause of conflict related civilian deaths, new technologies and innovation in the production and transfer of small arms and light weapons contribute to their illicit proliferation and destabilizing accumulation around the globe.”
10. Med shot, Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Cécile Aptel, Deputy Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research:
“Diversion, illicit trafficking and misuse of small arms, light weapons and ammunition have significant gendered age related and context specific negative impacts. Most weapon related incidents are perpetrated by men and men, especially young men, constitute most of the victims of armed violence.”
12. Wide shot, Council
13. Wide shot, representatives delivering statement
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Maria Gabriela Sommerfeld, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, Ecuador:
“In all aspects of our work in the Security Council, we express our grave concern regarding the detrimental and disproportionate impact of ineffective management, diversion, illicit trafficking, proliferation, destabilizing accumulation and misuse of all small arms and light weapons and ammunition on women and girls, including the exacerbation of discrimination, gender inequality, and sexual and gender-based violence.”
15. Pan right, representatives leaving
The UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, said that small arms and light weapons “are the weapons of choice in initiating, sustaining and exacerbating conflict, armed violence, terrorism and other forms of organized crime.”
The Security Council today (15Dec) held an open debate on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW).
Addressing the meeting, Izumi Nakamitsu said, “the biennial consideration of “small arms” began more than fifteen years ago with a 2007 presidential statement. Since then, the Council has continued to recognize that the illicit transfer, destabilized accumulation and misuse of small arms and light weapons constitute a threat to international peace and security.”
She said that misuse of SALW “facilitates human rights violations and gender-based violence.”
The High Representative added, “according to the latest figure, in 2021 alone 260,000 people were killed by small arms amounting to 45 percent of all violent deaths."
She noted, "this is more than 700 people a day, or one person dying from small arms every two minutes.”
Nakamitsu said, “Considerable efforts have been undertaken at the global, regional, subregional and national levels in support of small arms and light weapons control.”
“These include work in the framework of the Programme of Action on small arms and light weapons and its International Tracing Instrument, the Firearms Protocol to the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, and the Arms Trade Treaty,” she continued.
Cécile Aptel, Deputy Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, also addressed the meeting. She said, “since 2021, an increase in conflict related deaths has contributed to a worrying upward trend.”
Aptel continued, “While small arms and light weapons were the second most prevalent cause of conflict related civilian deaths, new technologies and innovation in the production and transfer of small arms and light weapons contribute to their illicit proliferation and destabilizing accumulation around the globe.”
She noted, “diversion, illicit trafficking and misuse of small arms, light weapons and ammunition have significant gendered age related and context specific negative impacts.”
According to her, “most weapon related incidents are perpetrated by men and men, especially young men, constitute most of the victims of armed violence.”
Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Maria Gabriela Sommerfeld, Ecuador’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, who chaired the meeting, delivered a joint statement on behalf of the members signed the Shared Commitments on Women, Peace, and Security - Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Japan, Malta, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the UK, and the US, as well as upcoming members Guyana, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia.
Sommerfeld said, “In all aspects of our work in the Security Council, we express our grave concern regarding the detrimental and disproportionate impact of ineffective management, diversion, illicit trafficking, proliferation, destabilizing accumulation and misuse of all small arms and light weapons and ammunition on women and girls, including the exacerbation of discrimination, gender inequality, and sexual and gender-based violence.”
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