The world was manufacturing enough bullets each year to kill almost twice the number of inhabitants on the planet, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today as it continued its thematic debate on conventional weapons.
Yet, said the representative of Peru, that seemed to fall on deaf ears when some States openly blocked efforts to deal with the $15 billion spent annually on ammunition, while others blocked efforts to staunch the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. As with nuclear disarmament, when it came to conventional weapons disarmament, some countries were perpetuating their power, despite that the use of those weapons caused the largest number of victims in the world.
Those weapons’ indiscriminate use was particularly worrying, echoed the representative of Brazil, acknowledging the risks to public order posed by the illicit small arms trade. The disarmament and arms control regime must not enable criminals and non-State actors to have the upper hand in relation to Governments’ efforts to suppress the illegal trade.
Also spotlighting concern about non-State actors was the speaker for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who said that their activities were reinforced in the eastern part of her country by the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. Those groups derived their income sources and supply of arms and ammunition from illicit exploitation and looting of the area’s natural resources.
The situation in West Africa and the Sahel also imperilled the population, Ghana’s representative said, urging concerted global action to deal decisively with depriving terrorists and extremist groups from accessing improvised explosive devices and small arms and light weapons. Those groups were responsible for more than 300 terrorist attacks on the African continent within the first quarter of 2022, with more than half in the West African subregion.
It was only right that conventional weapons were equated with “weapons of mass destruction”, said the representative of Senegal, highlighting weaknesses in the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, which, he said, undermined its relevance and credibility. To live up to its purpose, the Register should include small arms and light weapons, alongside the seven traditional categories.
Moreover, he said, it only covered international transfers of conventional arms, while some States acquired those weapons through their national arms industries. The level of transparency required from those countries on their procurement was higher than that of countries that sourced their weapons through domestic production, making the Register discriminatory against those that relied on arms imports.
Brazil’s representative urged the disarmament community to be ready to tackle the challenges posed by emerging technologies in the conventional weapons field. Modern technologies, such as modular and polymer weapons, and 3D printing, should not enable criminals and non-State actors to gain the upper hand in relation to government efforts to suppress the illegal trade.
Asserting that Azerbaijan was one of the most landmine-contaminated countries in the world, its speaker said that those weapons had been planted by Armenia during its military occupation of nearly three decades. Since 2020 alone, Azerbaijan had neutralized more than 67,000 anti-personnel and anti-tank landmines, clearing an area constituting just 4 per cent of the overall mass subjected to mine action. During the past 30 years, more than 3,300 Azerbaijani citizens had become mine victims, including 357 children and 38 women, he said.
Also speaking today were representatives of Austria, Ukraine, New Zealand, Algeria, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Iraq, Burkina Faso, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Spain, Colombia, Togo, Czech Republic, India, El Salvador, Republic of Korea, Türkiye, Guatemala, Japan, Kuwait, Cuba and Viet Nam.
Speaking in right of reply were Armenia, Iran, Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and the United States, as well as the representative of the European Union, in its capacity as observer.
Source: UN General Assembly