MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

THEME 2
3. Develop an international regime for the standardisation, authentication,
verification, and continued monitoring of end-user commitments.
Strengthening national and international end-use monitoring must be a
top priority for arms exporting nations. Governments should begin efforts
by developing a common end-user certificate that cannot be easily replicated
or forged, and complementing it with a registry of authorised signatures.
The Security Council, the UN Secretary-General, or the General
Assembly could initiate such an effort by naming a UN working group to
take the lead.
4. Address arms brokering through legally binding measures, including
by moving toward the negotiation of an international instrument on
arms brokering. Too few governments regulate the activities of arms intermediaries,
and there are inconsistencies in national controls where they
exist. Illicit brokers can readily avoid existing controls by working from
other jurisdictions. Such strong national measures must urgently be put
in place. In addition, a global initiative will enable governments to clamp
down on this truly transnational problem. Interested governments may
choose to act through the UN or, failing that, create alternative forums to
negotiate such a treaty.
5. Ratify international instruments on arms transfers. In particular, the
UN Firearms Protocol should be more widely ratified to demonstrate
widespread support for its principles and enhance the harmonisation of
rules at the global level. Parliamentarians can advocate for the signing,
ratification and most importantly implementation into national law.
6. Drive development of an ATT and ensure commitment. Although wide
support was shown for the resolution commencing work on an ATT, there
are still a number of states that do not actively support the development
of an ATT. 44 The negotiation and drafting of an ATT promises to be a
long process, with concrete results unlikely to appear before 2010. Parliamentarians
can help build support domestically for such an instrument.
Contributors to the original version of this theme included Lisa Misol,
consultant; David Petrasek, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue; and Rachel
Stohl, Centre for Defence Information. Comments and suggestions were
received from Michael Crowley, Omega Foundation; Heidi Grau, Government
of Switzerland; Keith Krause, Small Arms Survey; Lora Lumpe,
Amnesty International USA; and Guy Pollard, Government of the UK.
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