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Geneva
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Conventional
Weapons
Index
|
Date |
Theme |
Speakers/Participants |
| 7
July 2010 |
Informal discussions on the ATT
Preparatory Committee
With resolution 64/48 of 12 January 2010 the UN General Assembly
decided to convene a UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to
meet in 2012 “to elaborate a legally binding instrument on the highest
possible common international standards for the transfer of
conventional arms.” The resolution also established that the remaining
sessions of the Open-ended Working Group – established in 2009 to
consider possible elements of an ATT – would function as preparatory
sessions for the 2012 Conference.
With a view to contributing to the first two sessions of the ATT
Preparatory Committee (Prepcom) – scheduled for 12-23 July 2010 – the
Geneva Forum hosted an informal discussion that was attended by
representatives from governments, international and non-governmental
organizations.
The meeting focused on two agenda items:
1. Objectives of the Prepcom (including ways to assist the Chair in
achieving them); and
2. Scope of an ATT.
A third agenda item, added during the discussions, concerned civil
society participation in the work of the Prepcom.
|
Meeting held under the Chatham House rule |
| 12
April 2010 |
Towards the first preparatory
committee on an Arms Trade Treaty: Regional perspectives
With resolution 64/48 of 12 January 2010, the UN General Assembly
decided to convene a UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty for 2012.
Prior to the Conference, five preparatory sessions will be held
starting from July 2009; these will be central in delineating the
structure and content of a legally binding instrument aimed at
establishing common international standards for the transfer of
conventional arms.
This lunchtime seminar focused on the scope and characteristics of an
ATT and dealt with relevant regional perspectives as emerged during
the meetings jointly hosted by the European Union and the United
Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).
|
Chair:
Silvia Cattaneo, Coordinator, Geneva Forum
Speakers:
Elli Kytömäki, United Nations Institute for Disarmament
Research
Daniel Mack, Isituto Sou da Paz
|
| 6
August 2009 |
Promoting Discussions on an ATT:
Progress, Key Issues and Next Steps
In January 2009, as part of the European Security Strategy, the
Council of the European Union took a decision to support EU activities
to promote among third countries the process leading towards an Arms
Trade Treaty (ATT). Mandated with the technical implementation of this
decision, UNIDIR, with European Union funding, established a project
designed to promote the participation of all stakeholders in the
discussions around such an ATT. The project aimed to integrate
national and regional approaches to the international process underway,
and to contribute to identifying the scope and implications of a
treaty on the trade in conventional arms. These discussions, among
States, regional organizations, and civil society were intended as an
important input to current discussions on an ATT, and as a means to
related national, regional, and international debates.
The Geneva Forum organised a seminar to evaluate the feedback from the
first three regional meetings, held in Dakar, Mexico City and Amman,
on the nature of a possible ATT. It was an opportunity to look at the
process currently underway at the United Nations, and to analyse the
scope, content, and implications of such a treaty. The seminar also
provided an opportunity to gather ideas to map out further action,
recommendations, and suggestions that could feed into the ATT process.
|
Chair:
Christiane Agboton-Johnson,
Deputy-Director, UNIDIR
Speakers:
Elli
Kytömäki, Project Manager, UNIDIR
Sam Perlo-Freeman,
Researcher, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Glenn McDonald,
Senior Researcher, Small Arms Survey
|
| 24
June 2009 |
Informal consultations on an Arms
Trade Treaty – second round
This meeting offered an opportunity for informal discussion and
exchange of views in preparation for the second session of the
Open-Ended Working Group on an Arms Trade Treaty (OEWG), held in July
2009. The Group was tasked with further considering “efforts within
the United Nations to address the international trade in conventional
arms” – established with UNGA resolution 63/240 (8 January 2009).
The consultations gathered representatives from all stakeholder
communities to discuss key substantive issues touched on by a possible
Arms Trade Treaty; to help to move towards shared understandings on
the scope, principles, and draft parameters of an ATT; and to examine
possible next steps of the OEWG. The discussions, to which selected
representatives of governments, non-governmental organizations, UN
agencies and the industry were invited, was held under the Chatham
House rule.
|
Meeting held under the Chatham House rule |
| 23
February 2009 |
Informal consultations on an Arms
Trade Treaty – first round
This luncheon
gathered together representatives of Governments already supporting
the ATT process, representatives of non-governmental organizations,
and UN agencies. The aim was to assist with preparations for the first
session of the OEWG on an Arms Trade Treaty, held in New York on 2-7
March 2009. Specific objectives of the meeting were to outline goals
for the OEWG session, identify possible or already existing obstacles,
and devise strategies to start building agreement on central elements
of the ATT. The discussion was held under the Chatham House rule.
|
Meeting held under the Chatham House rule |
| 26
July 2008 |
Towards an Effective Arms Trade Treaty:
Informal Intersessional Meeting (New York)
Organised jointly with Oxfam International
The meeting took place immediately before the third and final session
of the UN Group of Government Experts and sought to facilitate
informal interaction and dialogue among the members of the GGE but
also between GGE members and other interested States, as well as
selected non-governmental and industry stakeholders. The aim of the
meeting was to air a range of views on how to make the Arms Trade
Treaty currently under discussion by the GGE and the rest of the
international community as effective as possible.
Ambassador Roberto García Moritán, Chair of the GGE, participated in
the meeting. All GGE Experts were invited to participate and as well
as selected non-GGE States represented in New York. |
Meeting held under the Chatham House rule |
| 31 January 2008 |
Next Steps towards an Arms Trade Treaty: The Group of Governmental
Experts
In
February 2008, ambitious multilateral efforts to regulate the arms
trade moved into their second phase when a group of 28 government
experts* began a series of three meetings to examine the feasibility,
scope and draft parameters for a comprehensive, legally binding instrument
establishing common international standards for the import, export
and transfer of conventional arms – a so-called Arms Trade
Treaty (ATT).
The first phase of this work was completed in 2007 when an unprecedented
96 States (plus the European Union) submitted to the UN Secretary-General
their views on the feasibility, scope and parameters of such a
treaty. These views will inform the work of the Group of Governmental
Experts (GGE). Following meetings in February, May and August of
this year, the GGE will submit its report to the UN General Assembly
in the autumn with recommendations on how to proceed.
This seminar previewed the important work facing the Group of Governmental
Experts during the course of 2008.
Sarah
Parker of UNIDIR launched the second and final part of UNIDIR’s
quantitative and qualitative analysis of the views of States
on an Arms Trade Treaty, which also contains recommendations for
the
Group of Governmental Experts.
Anna Mc Donald of Oxfam identifed the ways in which irresponsible
arms transfers can have a negative impact on sustainable development
and how an Arms Trade Treaty could prevent this.
Clare de Silva of Amnesty International discussed the challenges
that the Group of Governmental Experts could face when discussing
arms transfer criteria based on human rights standards and also
pointed to lessons that the Arms Trade Treaty process could learn
from other standards-based multilateral instruments.
|
Chair:
Ambassador John Duncan
Delegation of the United Kingdom to the Conference
on Disarmament
Speakers:
Ms. Sarah Parker
Project Manager, United Nations Institute
for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)
Ms. Anna Macdonald
Head of Control Arms campaign, Oxfam International
Ms. Clare da Silva
Legal Consultant on the Arms Trade Treaty, Amnesty
International
|
| 26 April 2007 |
Getting
off to a Good Start on an Arms Trade Treaty: State’s Submissions
to the UN Secretary-General
This seminar was designed both to encourage
and to help States in drafting their views on an ATT for
submission to the UN Secretary-General. Legal aspects that
States may have wished to consider when compiling their views
was addressed by Clare da Silva of Amnesty International
and Camilla Waszink of the ICRC. Ambassador Kari Kahiluoto
of Finland presented a special “issues paper,” prepared
by the co-authors of the ATT resolution, designed to help
States to compile their views on an ATT. Finally, Rebecca
Peters of IANSA provided an update on the “People’s
Consultation on an ATT."
|
Ms.
Clare da Silva
Legal Adviser to the ATT NGO Steering Committee and Amnesty International
Representative
Ms. Camilla Waszink
Mines/Arms Unit, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Ambassador Kari Kahiluoto
Permanent Representative of Finland to the Conference on Disarmament
Ms. Rebecca Peters
Director, International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)
|
|
17
June 2004
Report |
Global
Disarmament, Demilitarisation and Demobilisation: Launch of the
BICC “Conversion Survey 2004”
This seminar
launched and discussed the 2004 edition of the “Conversion
Survey” produced by the Bonn International Centre for Conversion
(BICC). The Conversion Survey analyses current developments in military
spending, the defence industry, security sector reform, demobilization,
base closures, and surplus weapons. Ambassador Volker Heinsberg,
Germany’s Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament,
introduced the seminar. Dr. Michael Brzoska, Head of Research at
the Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC), presented the
contents of the 2004 Survey.
Dr. Brzoska
argued that, since September 2001, there had been a shift in worldwide
perceptions of the objectives and priorities of security policy.
Specific threats, such as international terrorism and proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction, were being emphasized whereas root
causes, such as poverty, lack of adequate health care, HIV/AIDS
and small arms, received less attention. Moreover, the preferred
way of dealing with these new threats was by military means, and
this has been reflected in a sharp increase in global military expenditures
since 2001. Dr. Brzoska argued that this reordering of priorities
had a negative impact on human development, human security, and
the fight against poverty. Unless priorities were reset, he emphasised,
there would be little chance of the lofty goals of the Millennium
Declaration of 2000 being reached.
|
Dr.
Michael Brzoska, Head of Research, Bonn International Centre
for Conversion (BICC)
Ambassador
Volker Heinsberg, Permanent Representative of Germany to
the Conference on Disarmament
|
|
5 June 2002
Report |
Conversion
Survey 2002: Global Disarmament, Demilitarisation and Demobilisation
For the second year in
a row (see 27 June 2001 below) the Geneva Forum organised the launch
in Geneva of the annual "Conversion Survey" produced by
the Bonn International Center for Conversion. The Conversion Survey
records events in the fields of practical disarmament, military-base
conversion, demobilization and defence industry restructuring and
is a valuable source of data describing trends in military sectors
worldwide. The 2002 edition focuses on the effects that the terrorist
attacks on the United States of 11 September 2001 have had on disarmament,
arms control and conversion worldwide. It notes that , already
before those attacks took place, many of the indicators signalled
a slowing of disarmament and conversion trends following a decade
of cuts in military expenditures, reductions in arms production,
job losses in the defence industry, downsizing of weapons holdings,
cuts in the manpower of armed forces and closures of military bases,
but that the events of September 11 are having the effect of further
slowing disarmament and conversion.
|
Dr. Michael
Brzoska, Head of Research, Bonn International Center for Conversion
(BICC)
Ambassador Volker Heinsberg,
Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Germany to the Conference
on Disarmament |
|
27 June
2001
Report |
Conversion
Survey 2001: Global Disarmament, Demilitarisation and Demobilisation
The Geneva Forum facilitated
the Geneva launch of the 2001 Conversion Survey, produced annually
by the Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC), by organising
a lunchtime seminar at which Dr. Michael Brzoska, Head of Research
at BICC, presented the findings of the 2001 report. The Conversion
Survey 2001, the sixth annual volume, reviews trends in global disarmament,
arms control and conversion. It quantifies developments in the BICC
disarmament index and summarizes events in the issue areas of military
expenditures; military research and development; restructuring and
conversion of the defense industry; demobilization and reintegration;
base closure and redevelopment; and the disposal of surplus weapons.
The Conversion Survey informs about opportunities and challenges
for conversion activities worldwide and provides an information
input for discussion on wider topics of disarmament and arms control.
Ambassador Günther Seibert, Head of the German delegation to the
Conference on Disarmament, introduced the seminar.
|
Dr. Michael
Brzoska, Head of Research, Bonn International Centre for Conversion
Ambassador Günther Seibert,
Ambassador, Head of the German Delegation to the Conference on Disarmament |
|
31 July
1998 |
Conventional
Arms Transfers: Surplus Weapons and Small Arms
The first in the series
of the Geneva Forum seminars focused on what to do with the weapons
which become surplus to requirements. Dr. Herbert Wulf sketched
out the broad dimensions of the surplus weapons problem in the area
of conventional weapons and elaborated a range of suggested directions
for national and international policy development. He gave particular
attention to the surplus weapons issue as it related to small arms
and light weapons.
|
Dr. Herbert
Wulf, Director, Bonn International Centre for Conversion, Federal
Republic of Germany. |
| 9 December 1996 |
The UN Register
of Conventional Arms: Expansion or Obsolescence? |
Dr. Malcolm
Chalmers, Senior Lecturer, Department of Peace Studies, University
of Bradford, UK
|
| 12 September
1996 |
Constraining
Conventional Proliferation: Lessons from the Canadian Study
Dr. Keith Krause briefed
participants of the policy-relevant conclusions of the report of
the study entitled "Constraining Conventional Proliferation:
A Role for Canada" (March 1996), which had been prepared for
the Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament Division of
the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa.
|
Prof. Keith
Krause, Professor of International Politics, Graduate Institute
of International Studies / Academic Advisor, Programme for Strategic
and International Security Studies |
|