Statement by Sarah de Zoeten, First Secretary, Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations to the Open-Ended Working Group Towards An Arms Trade Treaty: Establishing Common International Standards For The Import, Export And Transfer Of Conventional Arms on the Consideration Of The Scope Of A Potential Arms Trade Treaty
4 March 2009
(As delivered)
Thankyou Mr Chairman
Australia considers scope and parameters of an Arms Trade Treaty to be inextricably linked and will provide you with our thoughts on the latter during our discussions under Agenda Item 6.
Australia recognises the right for legitimate self-defence as set out in Article 51 of the UN Charter, as well as states right to import and export arms for domestic security and peacekeeping operations and states right to non-interference in internal affairs.
However, we do not see an inconsistency between this right and an Arms Trade Treaty. The primary aim of an Arms Trade Treaty should be, as mentioned by my distinguished colleague from Argentina yesterday, to prevent, combat and erradicate the risks that are posed to international peace and security. In short, an Arms Trade Treaty should address the absence of common international standards.
We also agree with statements made yesterday that an Arms Trade Treaty should not minimise states’ responsibilities but rather act as a “checks and balances” system which institutionalises and promotes States responsibilities to ensure coventional weapons and their related materials stay in responsible hands.
An Arms Trade Treaty should be broad in scope and the range of activities captured must be clearly defined. An Arms Trade Treaty should cover both conventional arms including small arms and light weapons and dual-use goods. While we agree we should look to the UN Conventional Arms Register we support calls that the ATT must be broader than this.
Mr Chairman
The Group of Governmental Experts recognised that weapons traded in the illicit market frequently come from unlicensed production and transfers, unlawful re-export and illicit brokering, and insecure weapons storage and transportation.
An Arms Trade Treaty should include brokering which Australia considers to be any activity involving negociating or arranging contracts, selling, trading or arranging the transfer of arms and related military equipment from one third country to another third county.
An Arms Trade Treaty should also include intangible technology transfers including technical data for production, development and use of conventional arms or dual-use items. Examples of this would include blueprints, plans, diagrams, technical specifications, training manuals and operating instructions.
From Australia’s perspective an Arms Trade Treaty should also complement the enforcement of UN sanctions. We believe that an Arms Trade Treaty with a proposed scope as I have mentioned, paired with an effective monitoring system, could assist in the enforcement of sactions-regimes.
Finally, a few issues of which we should be mindful. First, an Arms Trade Treaty should be able to ensure that emerging technologies are captured without the need for constant amendment to the Treaty.
Secondly, while an Arms Trade Treaty should have a broad scope, we should ensure consideration of how the different elements of the regime can operate as a system to ensure synergy between its different aspects, including the inter-relationship between export and import.
Thankyou Mr Chairman.