Coordinating Action on Small Arms (CASA)
United Nations Policy
13 August 1998
Introduction
In pursuance of Resolutions 50/70 B and 52/38 J. the United Nations as an organization is
mandated to focus its concerns on those small arms and light weapons which
have actually been used in the armed conflicts dealt with by the United Nations.*
While the weapons actually used included virtually any instrument of lethality
-- ranging from stones and machetes to shoulder-fired missiles -- the mandates
addressed to the United Nations concentrate on weapons manufactured to military
specifications such as self-loading pistols, revolvers, sub-machine guns,
assault rifles, grenades and explosives. Cheap to buy, easily available, requiring
low maintenance and little training to operate, small arms are the weapons
of choice for groups and individuals operating mostly outside the reach of
state authority and accepted standards of humanitarian law. Within the framework
of the UN's agenda of disarmament, these are among the weapons not covered
by existing multilateral agreements.
The Changing Context
Since the former
Centre for Disarmament Affairs took the initiative, in 1995, to do research
on this category of weapons as the instruments of choice in intra-state conflicts,
the subject has received growing attention within the UN system.
There is a humanitarian concern over the suffering and displacement resulting from the use of these weapons. More than 90% of the victims are civilians, with women and children accounting for more than 85%. For every single casualty, more than five are directly or indirectly affected through displacement.
There is a developmental concern about the destabilizing and disruptive consequences of recurring conflicts fought mostly in the back lanes and streets inhabited by non-combatants engaged in rural and urban economic pursuits in some of the least developed sub-regions. Developmental gains made over years are negated with each new incidence of indiscriminate violence and sudden outbursts of armed conflicts fought with weapons which keep changing hands within and among sub-regions emerging from past conflicts.
There is a security concern related as much to post-conflict peace-building as to conflict prevention. Around the globe, there are at least 20 locations where an armed conflict could occur or recur due largely to an incomplete process of disarmament either of former combatants or civilians, particularly among societies with fragile or fledgling state structures.
Outside the UN, a growing global constituency of NGOs is keen to mobilize public opinion for taking concerted action to address the issues raised by excessive accumulation, proliferation and use of small arms.
Among the Member States of the UN, there is a shared recognition that some parts of the world are more severely affected by the phenomenon of small arms than others and a global consensus is possible on situation-specific measures designed to meet the requirements of a sub-region or a group of countries. Some Member States need to be assured that the Organization's attention to issues raised by small arms will in no way detract from the continuing importance of working towards the goals of nuclear disarmament.
The United Nations has so far remained central to the articulation of concerns over the issue of small arms from different perspectives. It has raised expectations. It stands to gain by clarifying its objectives and providing a coherent statement of its strategies in pursuit of those objectives. There is an urgency about going public on what it hopes to attain, and how, in order to ensure that its mandates are well understood and widely supported. There is also a timely imperative to come to an understanding that the entire UN system speaks with one voice in order to forestall possible overlap or deliberate exploitation of any gaps by private groups and individuals whose interests are not germane to the UN's mandates.
Objectives
The objectives of
the UN's policy on the issues related to small arms are five-fold and mutually
supportive:
-
to retain the lead taken by the United Nations in putting the issue on the global agenda by projecting itself as a leader, a catalyst, and a clearing house for different initiatives;
-
to channel the growing international concern into the realization of some realistic and attainable goals by assuming a coordinating role in determining priorities;
-
to encourage widespread involvement of civil society, including NGOs, in building societal resistance to the illegitimate use of small arms and light weapons;
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to strengthen the UN's ability for responding speedily and effectively to requests for assistance by sub-regions and countries severely affected by the excessive accumulation, proliferation and use of small arms, including their illicit traffic;
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to ensure that the above objectives are pursued within the framework of, and without prejudice to, the UN's overall objectives in the field of disarmament.
Guiding principles
The guiding principles
for the UN's policy are derived from the following sources:
-
the Secretary General's Report on Africa which was requested by the Security Council (A/52/871-S/1998/318);
-
the Secretary-General's Report on Small Arms which was requested by the General Assembly (A/52/298);
-
the terms of reference guiding the United Nations' response to specific requests for assistance addressed to the Secretary-General in collecting and/or destroying small arms, as in the case of Mali and Albania;
-
lessons learned from past and ongoing UN experiences of involvement in situations where issues related to small arms were relevant, as in Angola, Burundi, E1 Salvador, Guatemala, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Somalia and others.
The broad guiding principles for United Nations policy for Coordination of Action on Small Arms (CASA) are enumerated below:
Prevention of
armed conflicts
As stated by the
Secretary-General in his recent report on Africa (A/52/871-S/1998/318): "For
the United Nations, there is no higher goal, no deeper commitment and no greater
ambition than preventing armed conflict".
In order to prepare and maintain an updated profile of armed conflicts fought with small arms, all relevant information on the categories, quantities and transfers of small arms available to UN offices and missions in the field, UN agencies and departments should be forwarded to the Department for Disarmament Affairs (DDA). The information will be stored in the data base and brought to the attention of those concerned. This will be useful in preparing informed statements by the Secretary-General and other high officials.
Measures for reducing and preventing excessive accumulation and proliferation of small arms
In the Secretary-General's Report to the General Assembly in pursuance of Resolution 50/70 B (A/52/298), there is a set of recommendations addressed to Member States in which measures are proposed to reduce and prevent excessive accumulation and proliferation of small arms (Annex I). Any measures adopted in the implementation of those recommendations will be monitored with a view to promote wider adherence where applicable. This will be useful to identify those responsible in the Secretariat for their presence or participation in events and activities associated with the designing and adoption of such measures and to enable the United Nations to act as a clearing house for new initiatives.
Terms of reference
for UN actions in response to specific requests for assistance
The United Nations'
actions in response to specific requests for assistance in programs for weapons
collection, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants in civil
society will be firmly based on clear terms of reference agreed to by the
requesting State. This will be necessary to avoid open-ended commitments in
changing situations which may call for a total review of the original mandate
and fall beyond the scope of activities relating to small arms.
Lessons learned
from past experiences
The United Nations
has accumulated vast experience in planning and implementing operations aimed
at the prevention, management and resolution of armed conflicts fought with
small arms. It will be useful to supplement this with additional insights
to be gained from promoting an exchange of national and sub-regional experiences
through support for occasional workshops in cooperation with affected Member
States.
Integrated approach
to disarmament and development
During the period
when global military spending had peaked at close to a trillion dollars a
year, in 1987, it was assumed that even a fraction of the amount could yield
enormous benefits if directed towards development of the poorer countries.
For over five years, there has been a worldwide decline in military expenditures
and yet no additional resources have been re-directed towards developmental
programs. What needs to be recognized now is that apart from being the beneficiary,
development may actually promote disarmament, particularly in societies where
small arms are being used as currency by mostly young and unemployed people
who may be willing to give them up in return for gainful employment in projects
for community development. An integrated approach to disarmament and development
will entail closer cooperation between the economic and disarmament sectors
of the Secretariat.
Involvement of
civil society
One of the major
tasks for the United Nations' policy in small arms has to be the encouragement
of the widest possible involvement of civil society in building resistance
to the illegitimate uses of small arms, including their employment as tools
of violence. The importance of this task cannot be overstated because the
resistance must come from the level at which these arms are being used. It
is here that the United Nations is in a unique position to launch a worldwide
advocacy campaign to generate a better understanding of the direct and indirect
consequences of the accumulation and proliferation of small arms. It is here
that the humanitarian and developmental aspects of the issue of small arms
will reinforce the implementation of UN's mandate for disarmament. It is also
here that the United Nations can draw upon the vast energies released by a
growing interest among the NGO community to be actively associated with the
promotion of the UN's objectives in the field of small arms.
Strategies
Adopting a multisectoral
and coordinated approach to the issue of small arms is a relatively new and
delicate task for the United Nations, especially in view of the diverse initiatives
being taken by governments, regional and sub-regional organizations and NGOs
(Annex II). There is some risk that the mandate of the Organization may be
pulled into directions not supported by political consensus which is so necessary
for taking effective global action. In the absence of a clear sense of direction
from the UN, there are occasions when comparisons are drawn between the successful
grass-roots action resulting in the Ottawa process to impose a global ban
on land mines and what could be achieved through similar public support for
an international treaty or agreement on small arms. Such expectations seem
to ignore a very fundamental difference between small arms and land mines.
The latter could be banned on humanitarian grounds partly because it is possible
to locate them in isolation from any other category of small arms which cover
so many types and uses that to ban them in toto is almost like banning kitchen
knives.
This paper proposes a system-wide commitment for following measures of coordination of action on small arms:
-
Identification of the focal point for all UN action on small arms within the US system.
-
Priority setting
-
Advocacy
-
Resource mobilization
The designation of DDA as the focal point for all action on small arms within the UN system is the first step to set in motion a process of mutual consultation and exchange of information and experiences for the attainment of objectives described above.
In this capacity, the DDA will be responsible for ensuring a coherent and coordinated response to the challenge posed by small arms in the attainment of UN's overall objectives in the field of disarmament. In consultation with other partners, it will also establish priorities and facilitate a constructive dialogue with donors and international community. It will coordinate mobilization of resources to respond to specific requests for assistance by affected member states. It will coordinate the collection, analyses and dissemination of information, take a lead in advocacy efforts and manage any voluntary fund that may be established to support UN' actions on small arms.
The DDA is already in a position to identify that the holding of an international conference on illicit arms transfers is a priority for the UN. The decision to hold it will require an enabling resolution by the General Assembly after which the preparatory process will start in earnest. The Government of Switzerland has announced its willingness to host such a conference in the year 2000.
In the area of advocacy the DDA is committed to following specific activities:
-
develop a small arms page within the UN Home Page on the INTERNET which would be the central focal point for all United Nations actions in the area of small arms;
-
publish an information booklet on small arms for the general public;
-
compile and publish a volume containing papers written by specialists in the field;
-
produce a documentary film on small arms and light weapons;
-
establish and maintain an information bank on small arms and light weapons within the Secretariat accessible on LOTUS NOTES and/or the UN's INTRANET site (http://intranet).
In promoting an exchange of national experiences, the DDA will be assisting the Government of Guatemala in organizing a sub-regional workshop in October of this year. The workshop will include participants from E1 Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia and Honduras. Its findings will be disseminated as a United Nations document at the request of the Government of Guatemala. oIn resource mobilization for responding to specific requests for assistance by affected states, the DDA will be submitting an application to the Turner Trust Fund for a two year pilot project to assist in programs of weapons collection in Africa and Southern Europe. It is also exploring the possibility of undertaking joint projects with UNDP in specific situations where its efforts have a bearing on developmental programs for which the micro-credit facilities of the World Bank could also be approached for support in the poorer countries.
Responsibilities and coordinating mechanisms
Coordinating Action
on Small Arms (CASA) will serve as the DDA's mechanism for consultation, information
exchange and priority setting among Departments and Agencies with comparative
advantage in pursuing agreed strategies. CASA will hold its inaugural meeting
in early August and decide upon the specific responsibilities of its various
partners. At the inaugural meeting, which will be held at the highest level,
CASA will also receive the designation of focal points by each partner for
regular consultations at working level. Subject to the approval of other partners,
and inviting their respective views of the issues most relevant to them, the
DDA proposes the following composition of CASA with an indication of their
comparative advantage:
Department of Political
Affairs (DPA)
The expertise and
experience of DPA will be important in monitoring trends and developments
in countries and subregions affected by armed conflicts fought with small
arms including their transboundary movements prior to, during, and after the
conflict.
Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
In an advocacy role,
the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs will promote awareness
of the impact of excessive and destabilizing accumulations of small arms in
the context of humanitarian operations. With a view to reducing the impact
of small arms on civilians, alleviating the dangers to humanitarian workers
during such operations, and contributing to reducing the scale and incidence
of conflicts, OCHA will identify audiences for humanitarian advocacy, including
the media, civil society groups and the private sector. It may wish to prepare
an advocacy issues paper for consideration by the Executive Committee for
Humanitarian Affairs (ECHA) and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)
to promote the humanitarian agenda on small arms, which might include the
compilation of data on the use and effects of small arms from United Nations
humanitarian and NGO workers in the field.
Department of Peacekeeping
Operations (DPKO)
The Department of
Peacekeeping Operations will be a major partner in drawing lessons from the
collection of weapons as part of disarmament and demobilization exercises
in the UN. To these ends, it will establish a disarmament component within
each peacekeeping operation to study, assess and report on the results of
each exercise. DPKO will also collect information on the number of small arms
and light weapons collected, stored and/or destroyed in the context of disarmament
and demobilization exercises. It will also collect data on the use of small
arms by non-UN elements against "Blue Helmets", civilian UN staff and NGO
workers in peacekeeping operations.
Department of Public Information
(DPI)
The Department of
Public Information will be instrumental in providing the tools and strategies
for advocacy with a view to promoting awareness of the problem of the excessive
and destabilizing accumulations of small arms. It will use its print, broadcast
and INTERNET media to place the issue of small arms among the global issues
being addressed by the United Nations.
United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP)
The United Nations Development
Programme has the resources and experience to implement specific requests
linking disarmament to development. Its field offices will be the project
partners of DDA in responding to such requests and its reports will be distributed
through CASA.
Department of Economic
and Social Affairs (DESA)
The Department of
Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) will strengthen the statistical and data-gathering
resources for analyzing the impact of small arms on development.
Commission on Crime Prevention
and Criminal Justice (CPCJ)
The Vienna-based
Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice will keep CASA informed
regarding the elaboration of an international instrument to combat the illicit
manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms within the context of a United
Nations convention against transnational organized crime. It will be among
the bodies to be consulted in the preparation for an international conference
on illicit arms trade.
United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for
Children in Armed Conflict
The Executive Director
of UNICEF and the SRSG for Children in Armed Conflict will provide support
for advocacy measures to prohibit children from being forced or allowed to
take up arms. They will also promote the need for demobilization exercises
which effectively demobilize child soldiers and reintegrate them into society.
UNICEF could also play a role in the gathering of information on the use of
small arms in the context of UN operations.
United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR)
The Office of the
High Commissioner for Refugees will continue its advocacy role for the disarming
of refugees and the effective separation of combatants from refugees. The
Office could also play a role in the gathering of data on the use of small
arms in the context of UN humanitarian operations.
Resources
The various UN actors
will conduct their own fund-raising activities for supporting United Nations
policies in the area of small arms and light weapons. However, they will coordinate
these activities with CASA to ensure that the policies are coherent and mutually
reinforcing.
In order to secure the consistency of UN action, and unless clearly impractical to do so in exceptional circumstances, new projects and initiatives, if they are not already part of an ongoing UN programme, will be discussed with CASA prior to their submission for funding to the international community.
CASA will initiate consultations with all UN partners involved with a view to identifying priorities for action in the area of small arms and light weapons and sharing those priorities with the international community.
In order to assist donors to determine how best to utilize their resources, CASA will prepare periodic "programme of action" documents outlining the resources required for all projects.
*The term small arms used in this paper also includes light weapons. The distinction is explained in the Secretary-General's report (A/52/298).
Department for Disarmament Affairs
19 June 1998
Annex I
Recommendations made by
the Panel of Governmental Experts on Small Arms
in pursuance of
Resolution 50/70 B
[As contained in
the Report of the Secretary-General, A/52/298]
Measures to reduce the excessive and destabilizing accumulation and transfer of small arms and light weapons in specific regions of the world where such accumulations and transfers have already taken place:
79a The United Nations should adopt a proportional and integrated approach to security and development, including the identification of appropriate assistance for the internal security forces initiated with respect to Mali and other West African States, and extend it to other regions of the world where conflicts come to an end and where serious problems of the -proliferation of small arms and light weapons have to be dealt with urgently. The donor community should support this new approach in regard to such regions of the world;
79b The United Nations should support, with the assistance of the donor community, all appropriate post-conflict initiatives related to disarmament and demobilization, such as the disposal and destruction of weapons, including weapons turn-in programmes sponsored locally by governmental and non-governmental organizations;
79c Once national conciliation is reached, the United Nations should assist in convening an inter-Afghan forum to prepare, inter alia, a schedule to account for, retrieve and destroy the small arms and light weapons left unaccounted for in Afghanistan;
79d In view of the problems
stemming from an excess of small arms and light weapons left over from many
internal conflicts and the lessons learned from the peacekeeping operations
of the United Nations, two sets of guidelines should be developed in order
to:
(i) Assist negotiators
of peace settlements in developing plans to disarm combatants, particularly
as concerns light weapons, small arms and munitions, and to include therein
plans for the collection of weapons and their disposal, preferably by destruction;
(ii) Provide assistance
to peacekeeping missions in implementing their mandates, based on peace settlements;
Former peace negotiators and members of peacekeeping operations of the United Nations should be consulted in the preparation of such guidelines. In this connection, consideration should be given to the establishment of a disarmament component in peacekeeping operations undertaken by the United Nations (recommendation 79d);
79eStates and regional organizations, where applicable, should strengthen international and regional cooperation among police, intelligence, customs and border control officials in combating the illicit circulation of and trafficking in small arms and light weapons and in suppressing criminal activities related to the use of these weapons;
79f The establishment of mechanisms and regional networks for information sharing for the above-mentioned purposes should be encouraged;
79g All such weapons which are not under legal civilian possession, and which are not required for the purposes of national defence and internal security, should be collected and destroyed by States as expeditiously as possible.
Measures to prevent accumulations and transfers of small weapons from occurring in the future.
80a All States should implement the recommendations contained in the guidelines for international arms transfers in the context of General Assembly resolution 46/36 H of 6 December 1991, adopted by the Disarmament Commission in 1996;
80b All States should determine in their national laws and regulations which arms are permitted for civilian possession and the conditions under which they can be used;
80c All States should ensure that they have in place adequate laws, regulations and administrative procedures to exercise effective control over the legal possession of small arms and light weapons and over their transfer in order, inter alia, to prevent illicit trafficking;
80d States emerging from conflict should, as soon as practicable, impose or reimpose licensing requirements on all civilian possession of small arms and light weapons on their territory;
80e All States should exercise restraint with respect to the transfer of the surplus of small arms and light weapons manufactured solely for the possession of and use by the military and police forces. All States should also consider the possibility of destroying all such surplus weapons;
80f All States should ensure the safeguarding of such weapons against loss through theft or corruption, in particular from storage facilities;
80g The United Nations should urge relevant organizations, such as the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and the World Customs Organization, as well as all States and their relevant national agencies, to closely cooperate in the identification of the groups and individuals engaged in illicit trafficking activities, and the modes of transfer used by them;
80hAll States and relevant regional and international organizations should intensify their cooperative efforts against all aspects of illicit trafficking mentioned in the present report that are related to the proliferation and accumulation of small arms and light weapons
80i The United Nations should encourage the adoption and implementation of regional or subregional moratoriums, where appropriate, on the transfer and manufacture of small arms and light weapons, as agreed upon by the States concerned;
80j Other regional organizations should take note, and make use, as appropriate, of the work of the Organization of American States in preparing a draft inter-American convention against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives and other related materials;
80k The United Nations should consider the possibility of convening an international conference on the illicit arms trade in all its aspects, based on the issues identified in the present report.
Annex II
RECENT ACTIVITIES AND INITITIVES IN THE FIELD OF SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS*
UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTIONS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS
General Assembly Resolutions
GA Resolution 43/751 (1988) International Arms Transfers
GA Resolution 50/70B (1995) Small Arms
GA Resolution A/52/38 J (1997) Small Arms
Reports of the Secretary-General
GA Document A/46/301 (1991) Report of the Secretary-General on the ways and means of promoting transparency in International arms transfers of conventional arms.
Sahara-Sahel Advisory Mission Report (1995) Report to the Secretary-General
GA Document A/50/60 (1995) Supplement to an Agenda for Peace: Position Paper of the Secretary-General on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the UN.
GA Document A/50/405 (1995) Report of the Secretary-General: Assistance to States for Curbing the Illicit Traffic in Small Arms and Collecting Them
GA Document A/50/39 1 ( 1995)
Report of the Secretary-General to the GA on the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.
GA Document A/5 1/42 (1996) Report of the Disarmament Commission.
GA Document A1521289 (1997) Report of the Secretary-General: Consolidation of peace through practical disarmament measures.
GA Document A1521298 (1997) Report of the Secretary-General: Small Arms.
* The texts of UN documents are available in two DDA databases on LOTUS NOTES. The other initiatives are summarized in an "evolving text" prepared by DDA.
UNITED NATIONS AND SPECIALIZED
AGENCIES
Department for Peace
Keeping Operations (DPKO)
Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC)
Commission on Crime
Prevention and Criminal Justice
International Commission
of Inquiry on Rwanda
Office of the Coordinator
for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Office of the Representative
of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict
United Nations Institute
for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)
UNESCO
UNICEF
United Nations Research
Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)
OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
International Criminal
Police Organization (INTERPOL)
World Bank
World Customs Organization
International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC)
INTERNATIONAL, REGIONAL,
SUB-REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS
ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)
Council of Europe
European Union (KU)
European Parliament
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