The Government of Mexico and the Academic Council of the United Nations System have co-sponsored a side event where the representatives from the Republic of Austria, UNODC and the Geneva Forum discussed about the complementary and mutually reinforcing elements of the Firearms Protocol, UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (UN PoA) and the process towards the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).
The event was chaired by Ms. Simonetta Grassi (UNODC) and Ms. Silvia Cattaneo (Geneva Forum) who highlighted the importance of the interaction between the various regimes of arms control.
Mr. Martin Krüger (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Austria) gave a presentation on the challenges and opportunities associated with the negotiations on Arms Trade Treaty. He provided an overview of the process leading to these negotiations and described the scope and the implementation modalities of the negotiated treaty. He concluded his presentation with an outline of the road map towards the next round of negotiations on the ATT.
Mr. David Atwood (Geneva Forum) presented the structure of the UN PoA and the main developments since its adoption in 2001. He focused later on the outcomes of from 2012 Review Conference of the UN PoA the links between this process and the UN Firearms Protocol.
Mr. Diman Dimov (UNODC) provided an overview of the Firearms' Protocol provisions and the status of its ratification. Further, he made a comparison between the Firearms Protocol and with the proposed draft for an ATT and provided examples, which establish a relationship based on an evolution in terms of scope and implementation modalities, as well as complementarity in various areas such as security measures and the regulation of brokering activities.
The presentations were followed by a question and answers session where Member States and NGO representatives shared their views on the synergies between the Firearms Protocol, UN PoA and the ATT.