Further Regulations of Arms Trade

A position paper for International Security Studies class’ Model United Nations (MUN) Simulation. Written by Gracya Qualimva, I. G. A. I. L Anom, and N. R. Nasir as the Delegates of Australia for Disarmament & International Security Committee of United Nations.

“The world will not wait for us” -Bob Hawke, 23rd Prime Minister of Australia

The world will not wait for us, and neither will every million people who suffer, die, and perish in the consequences of irresponsible arms usage. This is not simply a piece of abeldarsh hyperbole, but rather a grim reality as 2.000 people are killed by arms violence each day (Oxfam, 2012). This is not mere a myth, yet a horrendous reality that the African and Middle Eastern conflicts have been indirectly exacerbated by the imprudent international arms trade. The unattended small arms and light weapons control, moreover, further aggravates the truth. Regarding this matter, the wisdom of United Nations Charter established the Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC) as its responsibility for international peace and security 77 years ago. Together with the 193 states parties, DISEC has been at the forefront of promoting international arms trade and transfer agreements, which manifested in the Arm Trade and Treaty (ATT). Functionally, ATT addressed the need to prevent and eliminate illicit trade and the diversity of conventional arms to reduce human suffering based on the universal principle of humanity. It takes strict control on the weapon flow as it has been enshrined in Article 1 of the Geneva Convention (Arms Trade Treaty, n.d.). However, the truth has spoken out that ATT stride over failure, the human suffers.

As a member of the United Nations, Australia has long-standing promoted the universal principle of humanity and international security interests. This came over the fact that Australia has been established as a vulnerable country due to its geographical and territorial position in the Asia Pacific region. With such a position, Australia has recognized the national demand of ratification and enforcement of ATT to control and reduce the deleterious effects of international weapon flow which possibly threatens national security. The statement is substantiated by the action of Australia, which has already developed the legally binding instrument for the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 61/89 of 2006 concerning conventional arms transfers, supported the annual resolution of United Nations on the illicit and irresponsible transfer of conventional arms, along with the commitment to provide the United Nations Trust Facility Supporting Cooperation on Arms Regulations (UNSCAR) with $1 million per year for assistance to developing countries in implementing the conventional arms treaty (Parliament of Australia, 2013b).

Due to those, Australia believes that the failure of the Arms Trade Treaty must be reassessed to straight strive through the main and expected goals that have been established by the DISEC and United Nations based on critical, objective, collective, and inclusive evaluation. Our reassessment argument has been urged by certain considerations of universal principles and the ambiguity and ineffectiveness in latest ATT. Recalling Article 26 of the United Nations Charter in the Preambule of ATT, Australia believes that every sovereign country has the urgency to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources. Australia also believes the Preamble of ATT that wrote about the universal and international recognition of conventional arms illicit trade and market prevention and eradication efforts. Australia has also fully recognized the interconnection and inter strengthening between development, peace, security, and humanity (Arms Trade Treaty, n.d.). Based on these beliefs, Australia perceives certain policies on the treaty tend to gain more benefit to the exporter countries. The ATT implementation has been prone to negligence, as evidenced by the absence of a supervisor assigned to oversee its implementation. The lack of a specific mechanism to bind countries regarding reports on arms exports and imports, as well as the absence of regional bodies involved in the implementation of the treaty, further aggravates the fact that the treaty has not been implemented optimally as expected.

Based on those concerns and considerations, Australia proposes the following solutions to be implemented in the further regulations of arms trade in the DISEC:

1. Enhancing the Promoting Mechanism through Regional Security Cooperation

In 2001, the United Nations adopted the UN Program of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons (PoA) to the states parties of the United Nations. Based on that programme, the United Nations enhances the exhaustive manifestation of PoA in the international, regional and domestic level. As the international and domestic level has been controlled in a row by the United Nations and the states, the regional level is still less-practiced. Due to this, Australia believes that there is the urgency to enhance the regional security cooperation to actively promote regulation of arms trade through national implementation of each regional state, including to provide open discussion about the implication towards domestic policies and provide solutions for the funding systems. In addition, promoting this mechanism in regional scope helps increase the effectiveness of the regulation implementation world wide.

2. Encouraging the Surveillance Mechanism through Regional Security Cooperation

In 2019, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (2019) reported that the global arms trade was valued at $95 billion. In fact, the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (2017) stated that this trade often has a direct impact on international human right practices. Australia believes that this is due to the ineffectiveness of oversight through ATT’s pre-arranged report control mechanism. Due to that, Australia believes this is a great opportunity for regional security cooperation, either under The United Nations or any regional organizations, to encourage the surveillance mechanism by decreasing the scope and increasing the intensity. In this resolution, Australia also recommended the mechanism of Small Arms and Light Weapon as the part of the conventional arms.

References:

Arms Trade Treaty, (2013).

Oxfam International. (2015, January 7). Why we need a global Arms Trade Treaty. https://www.oxfam.org/en/why-we-need-global-arms-trade-treaty

Oxfam Media Briefing. (2012). The ABC of the Arms Trade Treaty Why it’s important. Https://Oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/Bitstream/Handle/10546/230398/Bgp-Arm s-Trade-Treaty-Abc-250612-En.pdf?Sequence=1&IsAllowed=Y; Oxfam.

Parliament of Australia. (2013a). Arm Trade Treaty. Aph.gov.au. https://www.aph.gov.au/-/media/Committees/Joint/Treaties/11-12December2013/arms _trade_nia.pdf?la=en&hash=DD11B889263BC9C8B0E9341155A4804A53F9E67B

Parliament of Australia. (2013b). National Interest Analysis [2013] ATNIA 19. Aph.gov.au. https://www.aph.gov.au/-/media/Committees/Joint/Treaties/11-12December2013/arms _trade_nia.pdf?la=en&hash=DD11B889263BC9C8B0E9341155A4804A53F9E67B

Sharma, G., & Finaud, M. (2019). The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and Asia’s Major Power Defiance -India, China, Pakistan, and Indonesia Strategic Security Analysis. The Diplomat. https://dam.gcsp.ch/files/2y10NglVtodrmscPeADoEPMuu59qGSGn3rBtYW6cOndix 7QEZaYZjlO

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. (2019). Financial value of the global arms trade. SIPRI. https://www.sipri.org/databases/financial-value-global-arms-trade

United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. (2017). The impact of arms transfers on the enjoyment of human rights. OHCHR. https://www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for-input/calls-input/2017/impact-arms-transfers-enjoy ment-human-rights-0

Note: This article has written on 31 March 2022.