UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The UN's senior disarmament official, Izumi Nakamitsu, stressed on Monday that the implementation of global tools for controlling the trade and transfer of weapons is critical to prevent arms from falling into the wrong hands.
Addressing the Security Council on the theme of "risks stemming from violations of the agreements regulating the export of weapons and military equipment," Nakamitsu emphasized that measures to counter weapons diversion "contribute significantly to global peace and security," especially conflict prevention, and that the illicit and unregulated trade and diversion of weapons and their ammunition "have long been major concerns for the international community."
In response to such risks, countries have established a number of international, regional, and bilateral arms control treaties, agreements, and frameworks to prevent and eradicate the illicit trade and diversion of conventional arms, she said.
Nakamitsu urged member states "to comply fully with their obligations" under the agreements to which they are parties, and called for robust frameworks for effective control over the export, brokering, import, transit, storage, and retransfer of weapons and ammunition.
She said that "preventing the diversion of weapons into the wrong hands requires strong cooperation and information exchange between importing, transit, and exporting states, as well as critical tracing systems."
She also emphasized that transparency in armament shipments "can serve as a confidence-building measure between states, reducing tensions, ambiguities, and misperceptions."
Nakamitsu spotlighted the UN Register of Conventional Arms, which was created in 1992, and urged all member states to participate in it "by reporting on the exports and imports of all equipment that falls under the Register's seven categories of arms and light weapons."
Additionally, she called on states that have not yet done so to join the Arms Trade Treaty, and urged all countries to consider the differential impact of the illicit trade of arms and ammunition on women, men, girls, and boys. ■
