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Geneva
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Conventional
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Date |
Theme |
Speakers/Participants |
| 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 |
|