August 30, 2007...9:36 am
An unusually frank exchange of views!
By Lina Holguin, Oxfam
By Lina Holguin, Oxfam
This is my fourth day in Geneva at the Meeting on transfer control principles for small arms and light weapons. Together with my Control Arms colleagues and other NGOs we have been attending all the sessions, meeting with states delegates to talk about specific issues and at the end of the day having our NGO lobby coordination meeting. We have had very long days, but very enlightening indeed!
Yesterday, my day started with a meeting some of us (Saferworld, Amnesty, Oxfam) had with the Vice-minister of Colombia, Camilo Reyes. We talked about Colombia’s efforts in fighting the illegal small arms trade and about cooperation between states and non-governmental organizations to achieve tougher arms transfer controls. The rest of the day I was in the room witnessing very rich exchanges between states.
The Canadian government, the meeting organizer, is looking for an unusually frank exchange of views, between states, international organizations and NGOs, on lessons learned and best practices, but without making specific criticisms or pointing fingers at any country. All of this is happening!
On Tuesday, Clare da Silva the legal adviser to the NGOs and a consultant to Amnesty International outlined state obligations under relevant international law and it was evident that this was much needed by the participants. Several governments including the Russian Federation said they make efforts to ensure respect of UN arms embargoes, human rights and other key factors.
Yesterday afternoon, Ken Epps, from Project Ploughshares, talked to participants about processes states undertake to authorize small arms transfers. Vice-Minister, Camilo Reyes intervened and invited other states to work in partnership with NGOs and use the expertise and experiences that we have. He said that governments are sometimes slow and bureaucratic and that NGOs can contribute by highlighting examples of how different countries are dealing with diversion of arms – arms ending up in hands they are not supposed to and resulting in crimes.
One of the strong arguments coming out consistently from states from Latin America and Africa is the need for ‘Northern’ countries to support them in their efforts to bring in tighter controls. A delegate from Nicaragua went further in calling on all exporters to commit to increase the involvement of importing states in decisions around whether or not to transfer weapons – an issue that is being raised by a number of states.
It was very encouraging to listen to southern countries talking directly to the big arms exporting countries about what they consider needs to happen to effectively regulate the arms trade. A few years ago, when we started campaigning on the arms trade, it was hard to imagine having over 100 countries discussing together the need for greater international controls. We have a long way to go, and this meeting is more about sharing information than making decisions, but it is really positive that the voices from my region, South America, where so many lives are destroyed by armed violence, are being heard.
Today’s discussions are about to start, I just watched the video from Control Arms in Haiti (which you can see also in this website). It contains testimonies from victims of armed violence. I hope that all the talk that is happening in this meeting will not stay in this conference room and that it will lead to real action that will contribute stop the horrific things that happen to the people that appear in the Haiti video. We shall see…
For more information on Control Arms campaign visit: www.controlarms.com
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