DYB2011-Part-II-web

Conventional weapons issues
Table 1. Regional participation of Member States in the United Nations
Register of Conventional Arms: 2001-2011
(Number of reports submitted)
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Africa (total: 53) 11 17 17 10 16 16 15 8 4 4 2
Asia and the Pacific
(total: 53)
Eastern Europe
(total: 23)
Latin America and
Caribbean (total: 33)
Western Europe and
other States (total: 30)
31 30 29 32 31 27 26 21 18 16 19
21 21 22 20 21 21 22 22 19 19 21
23 26 24 21 18 21 20 11 13 8 16
30 30 29 30 29 30 30 29 26 25 28
Total 116 124 121 113 115 115 113 91 80 72 86
Note: The table shows participation in the Register based on the years in which the national report was
submitted.
Objective information on military matters, including transparency of
military expenditures
The Standardized Instrument for Reporting Military Expenditures, now called
the United Nations Report on Military Expenditures, was established in 1981 to help
build confidence among States through greater openness in military matters and also
to encourage restraint in military spending. 26 It is a voluntary reporting instrument
that seeks data, based on fiscal year spending, under four broad categories, namely:
personnel; operations and maintenance; procurement and construction; and research
and development. The instrument also provides for “nil” reporting by States that do not
possess regular armed forces.
Group of Governmental Experts
During 2010 and 2011, a group of governmental experts (GGE) reviewed the
operation and further development of this reporting instrument for the first time in three
decades. 27 With a view to facilitating discussions within the GGE, a UNODA Occasional
Paper was published, in cooperation with the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute, entitled Promoting Further Openness and Transparency in Military Matters:
26 More details available from http://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/Milex/.
27 See General Assembly resolution 62/13 of 5 December 2007.
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