S/PV.5881
5881st meeting
Wednesday, 30 April 2008, 10 a.m.
New York
Small arms
Mr. Ettalhi (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya ) (spoke in Arabic): Allow me at the outset to thank you, Mr. President, for having convened this important meeting. I would also like to thank the Secretary-General for his report on the subject. In addition, I also wish to thank Mrs. Hannalore Hoppe, Director and Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs for her briefing this morning.
Today, the Security Council is discussing the subject of small arms and light weapons and illicit arms, as it has for eight consecutive years. This shows the interest that the Council has manifested in this issue, an issue linked to international peace, security and stability. Indeed, those weapons stir up conflicts and have negative repercussions on development in all regions of the world, in particular on the African continent. The most recent studies have, in fact, shown that the cost of armed conflict in Africa is currently exceeding $18 billion. This indeed is a considerable cost to the continent.
We are deeply concerned by the continued annual production of huge amounts of small arms. According to the report of the Secretary-General, more than 1,000 firms are manufacturing those arms in more than 100 United Nations Member States. The number of small arms produced annually is estimated at about 7.5 million units, a figure which, we believe exceeds States’ needs for legitimate self-defence and prompts us to wonder about this surplus of weapons and the responsibility of arms-producing countries in the illicit spread of small arms.
Prohibiting the illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons would have beneficial results: it would halt armed conflict and stop terrorism and organized crime. These are factors that could ensure stability in the developing world. As was stated by the representative of Costa Rica, this is first and foremost a question of political will on the part of States.
While we are grateful to the Security Council for having dealt with the question of illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons within the framework of its mandate to maintain international peace and security, we need to take into account the broader dimensions of the issue. What is needed is to promote synergy among the various bodies concerned, in particular the General Assembly and the Peacebuilding Commission, as noted by the Secretary-General in his recommendations. Member States should cooperate and collaborate in order to deal with this issue.
Libya believes that the ability of the United Nations to deal successfully with the risks involved in small arms and light weapons hinges on consensus — on the consideration of the implementation of the Programme of Action on Small Arms, which the General Assembly adopted in 2001 by consensus. The Programme of Action includes numerous important measures and is underpinned by a number of principles, which provide a legal and legitimate basis for it, such as the right of States to self-defence, the right of all peoples to self-determination and the right of peoples under occupation to resist. Thus, we all need to cooperate and show the necessary political will to ensure the success of the review conference on the implementation of the Programme of Action to be held in July of this year.
Libya supports all initiatives aimed at ensuring the tracing and marking of illicit small arms and light weapons to ensure credibility and verifiability. We therefore support the adoption by the General Assembly in December 2005 of an international instrument to this end. Although that instrument is non‑binding, it is our hope that member States will implement all of its provisions.
Cooperation among States in the area of tracing illicit small arms and light weapons is vital to success here. My country complies with international marking standards in order to make clear both the country that produces the weapons and the country to which they are being exported. Appropriate and strict control measures and national laws are being implemented in a regulated framework to govern the use of arms by the competent authorities. This is our contribution to deal with illicit trafficking in these weapons.
At the regional level, coordination among Arab States is exercised through regular meetings of the focal points in charge of identification and tracing of small arms and light weapons, to ensure an exchange of data and experience and to analyse regional and international developments related to this issue. The secretariat of the League of Arab States is also a depositary of the texts of laws and regulations on small arms, which become a data base that makes full use of the capacity of the States in the region.
Accordingly, our delegation supports the recommendation of the Secretary-General encouraging States to collect, maintain and share data on small arms. Combating the proliferation of small arms requires that we pool our efforts and engage in coordination at the bilateral, regional and international levels.
Finally, it is our hope that the international community will be able to implement international priorities with respect to disarmament, nuclear disarmament and the destruction of weapons of mass destruction and to the regulation of the genuine root causes of armed conflict.
