EU Statement – 4th Review Conference of the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons: General Statement

Madam President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

Allow me first to congratulate you on your appointment as President of the Fourth Review Conference of the UN Programme of Action. The EU commends you, your team and UNODA for the inclusive and transparent preparatory process carried out over the course of the past year. The EU welcomes your draft outcome document as a good basis for negotiation. You can count on the EU's support in your efforts towards a meaningful consensus outcome.

The EU notes that diversion, illicit trade and unauthorised use of small arms and light weapons contribute to instability and armed violence, thwarting sustainable development and crisis management efforts, further destabilising entire regions, the States therein and their societies, fuelling armed violence and organised crime, and amplifying the impact of terrorist attacks. Therefore, the EU is committed to preventing and curbing the illicit trade in SALW and their ammunition and to promoting accountability and responsibility with regard to their legal trade.

The EU considers the UN Programme of Action as the universal framework to counter the threat posed by illicit SALW and supports its full and effective implementation at national, regional, and global levels. The EU has consistently supported the implementation of the PoA with cooperation and assistance as set out in public progress reports. The EU has also supported the run up to this Conference by cooperating with UNODA to set up a series of regional conferences. I want to thank the President of the Conference for her commitment to and engagement in these events. We hope that they have contributed to a better understanding of the issues at hand and have served to forge a path toward common ground.

The EU believes that this Review Conference should demonstrate the necessary ambition to increase the effectiveness of the PoA and the International Tracing Instrument and to ensure their continued relevance. The EU will therefore contribute constructively to a meaningful consensus outcome while ensuring the following key objectives are reflected in the Conference's outcome document.

In our view, the outcome document should:

1. Recognise that the implementation of the PoA is supported by synergies with international instruments with similar objectives such as the Arms Trade Treaty and the UN Firearms Protocol, inter alia on reporting obligations and assistance and cooperation.
2. Welcome the adoption of the Global Framework for Through-life Conventional Ammunition Management. Recognise that the implementation of the PoA is complemented by the Global Framework in the prevention, combatting and eradication of the illicit trade in ammunition. Maintain the prevention, combatting and eradication of illicit trade in SALW ammunition in the scope of the PoA and address all necessary references to responsible ammunition management to include ammunition into the PoA process and encourage PoA participant States to exchange and share relevant experiences, lessons learned and best practice in line with the Global Framework. Acknowledge that many States already apply provisions of the PoA and ITI to SALW ammunition.
3. Acknowledge that, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, there can be no peace without sustainable development, no development without peace and neither without the respect for human rights and gender equality. Curbing illicit trade in SALW and their ammunition is crucial in this regard.
4. Support the gender sensitive approach to SALW-control and recognise the differentiated impacts of armed violence on women, men, girls and boys, and promote the role of women in implementation of the PoA and gender-based analysis in SALW control actions as a condition for their effectiveness.
5. Take action to preserve and increase the effectiveness of the PoA and its ITI in light of developments in SALW technology, design, manufacture and trade. The EU is especially concerned that the growing trend of small arms with a polymer frame or a modular design and the absence of a global standard on how and where to mark these weapons, risk gradually undermining the capacity to trace these weapons. In order to enable and preserve the capacity to trace polymer frame and modular SALW, it is necessary for the RevCon4 to agree on a process with a view to reaching a consensus on the marking of these SALW.
6. Support the establishment an open-ended technical expert group on the implementation of the UN PoA and its ITI with regard to new technologies in SALW.
7. Support the existing exchange of information, on a voluntary basis, between States on identified diversion cases in order to expose and cut off arms trafficking channels, and in order to improve the capacity for risk assessment in the context of arms export controls (article 11 of Arms Trade Treaty and the Diversion Information Exchange Forum).
8. Underline the role of arms export control practices in preventing and combatting the illicit SALW trade, including by means of assessing the risk of diversion (including with a gender perspective) prior to granting export licences.
9. Support SALW control activities in conflict-affected areas through an increased role for the UN and regional peace support operations, considering on a case-by-case basis, the inclusion of assistance for arms embargo monitoring and stockpile management when defining their mandate and, where possible, in cooperation with UN expert groups in charge of monitoring UN arms embargoes.
10. Highlight the role of the PoA in the fight against terrorism. The effective implementation of the PoA contributes to thwarting the acquisition of SALW by terrorists, thus reducing the potential impact of their attacks.
11. Recognise the role SALW play in domestic and gender-based violence, especially in violence committed by a family or intimate partner, and ensure the publicly available data on firearms misuse is sex disaggregated and includes data on domestic and gender-based violence.
12. Support the important role played by regional organisations in implementing the PoA as well as the involvement of researchers, civil society and industry in PoA-related activities in general.

In addition to these key objectives, the EU will put forward additional objectives during the debate on the outcome document. The EU's common position on the outcome document has also been submitted as a working document.

Thank you Madam President.