|
Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation Open-Ended Working Group on Tracing Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons, June 14-25, 2004The UN has established an open-ended working group "to negotiate an international instrument to enable States to identify and trace, in a timely and reliable manner, illicit small arms and light weapons." The working group had its first meeting in June 2004, and is scheduled to meet again in January/February 2005 and in June 2005. Establishment of the open-ended working group is a follow-up to the 2003 report of the Group of Governmental Experts on Tracing Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons. Futher information about the working group is available at: http://disarmament2.un.org/cab/salw-oewg.html. Marking and tracing is one of the core issues in the effort to control the transfer and use of small arms and light weapons. Ensuring that each weapon has a unique identifying number is seen as a means of documenting flows of small arms and light weapons, and decreasing illicit transfers. Country statements from 26 countries are available at: http://disarmament2.un.org/cab/salw-oewg-1.html. NGO statements to the first open-ended working group session are available at: http://disarmament.un.org:8080/cab/oewg/First%20session/NGOs/IANSA.pdf Source: United Nations website, http://disarmament.un.org. © 2003 The Acronym Institute. |